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The  Point  of  View  of 
Modern  Education 

By  Harriet  A.  Marsh,  LL.B. 

Principal  of  Hancock  School,  Detroit,  Mich.,  and 
Author  of  ^^How  Shall  Language  be  Taught?'' 
'■Are  We  Becoming  Un-Americanf  etc.,  etc.. 


/  4*^  ^7 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

BLOOMINGTON,    ILLINOIS 
1905 

\m   19C5 


Copyright   1905 
PUBLIC  SCHOOL  PUBLISHING  COiMPANY 

BLOOMINGTON,  ILLINOIS 


10- 


^36 


To  ?ny  dear  father,  my  first  and  noblest  teacher,  this  book 
is  affectionately  dedicated  by  the  author. 


Preface 


'  I  ^  HIS  little  book  is  the  substance  of  lec- 
tures before  Mothers'  clubs  delivered 
from  month  to  month  through  a  series  of 
years.  It  is  an  effort  to  make  application  of 
some  of  the  recent  discoveries  in  science  to 
the  training  of  children. 

The  now  generally  accepted  theory  of  the 
growth  of  the  human  race  through  the  ages, 
and  of  each  individual  born  into  the  world  in 
modern   times,  is  that  known  as  evolution, 
"^tj  The  old  education  was  founded  upon  a  radi- 
cally different  view  of  the  world  and  of  man, 
"  Educational  practice,  especially  in  later  gener- 
ti  ations,  has  not  been  consistent  with  its  theory, 
in  many  important  respects,  and  progressive 
teachers  have  felt  handicapped  by  a  doctrine 
which  was  opposed  to  their  methods. 

Every  institution  of  the  social  world  is 
now  adjusting  itself  to  the  theory  of  evolution. 
The  church,  the  home,  and  the  school  have 


been  more  tardy  than  science  and  industrial 
society  in  obeying  its  call,  but  the  school  is 
now  seeking  to  conform,  in  its  methods,  to 
this  new  movement  as  rapidly  as  conditions 
will  permit. 

This  little  volume  is  merely  a  series  of 
suggestions,  which  the  thoughtful  teacher  may 
find  helpful  in  her  study  of  children  and  of 
the  relations  of  the  school  to  the  home.  It 
is  addressed  quite  as  much  to  parents  as  to 
teachers  and  the  author  hopes  it  may  help  to 
bring  the  school  and  the  home  into  a  close 
and  more  sympathetic  union. 


Table  of  Contents 

Chapter  Page 

I      The  Growth  of  the  Affections      .  .          l 

II      The  Three  Nerve  Centers         .  .            13 

III      The  Child  and  His  Teachers          .  '   .       24 

IV      What  the  Child  Should  Learn  .           41 

V      What  the  Child  Should  Learn       .  .      60 

( Continued) 

VI      What  the  Child  Should  Learn  .            72 

( Continued) 

VII     Influences  .....       96 

VIII      Influences  (Continued)           .           .  .           116 

IX      Conclusion          .           .           .           .  .138 

List  of  Reference  Books             .  .            146 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  OF 
MODERN  EDUCATION. 

I. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS. 

/  4  4  6  7 
np HE  HOME  is  the  cradle  of  the  human  af- 
'*'  fections,  and  since  these  have  most  to  do 
with  our  happiness,  it  seems  profitable  to  con- 
sider their  laws  of  growth,  so  that  the  child 
may  be  placed  under  conditions  most  favorable 
to  their  proper  development. 

The  child  enters  the  world  a  little  animal  and 
though  his  advent  is  attended  with  all  the  help- 
lessness indicative  of  greater  brain  power,  nev- 
ertheless his  marks  of  superiority  are,  at  this 
time,  completely  hidden,  and  his  needs  are 
largely  those  of  his  brothers  in  the  animal  king- 
dom. The  young  of  any  species  find  great  com- 
fort and  enjoyment  in  warmth — animal 
warmth — instinctively  "snuggling"  up  to  any 
living  object  near  them,  particularly  at  night; 
and  every  naturalist  can  tell  of  the  various  ''ar- 


2  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

tificial  mothers"  in  the  form  of  bunches  of  hair 
or  rolls  of  fur  that  have  been  devised  to  meet 
the  need  so  piteously  emphasized  by  little  or- 
phans of  every  form  and  color.  The  human 
baby  is  no  exception  to  this  rule;  he  learns  to 
know  his  mother  through  the  sense  of  touch, 
and,  perhaps,  of  smell.  Himself  an  animal,  his 
budding  affections  must  have  a  material  or 
sense  basis  upon  which  the  higher  love  is 
builded  as  he  rises  to  a  higher  plane.  The  little 
cot  bed  and  the  artificial  means  of  nourish- 
ment, so  often  employed  from  the  moment  of 
birth,  may,  therefore,  become  a  hindrance  to 
this  development,  even  though  they  are  fre- 
quently a  hygienic  necessity. 

Again,  the  child,  like  the  adult,  instinctively 
seeks  companionship  suited  to  his  own  degree 
of  intelligence.  He  cannot,  at  first,  understand 
or  appreciate  the  society  of  grown  people,  but 
his  dawning  interest  is  aroused  by  the  pres- 
ence of  animals ;  a  pet  of  some  kind,  as  a  dog 
or  a  cat,  something  which  he  can  fondle  and 
play  with,  is  an  absolutely  necessary  condition 
of  his  early  growth  toward  a  loving  and  affec- 
tionate manhood.  Later  on  comes  the  desire 
for  the  society  of  other  children ;  but  the  child 


GROWTH  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS.      3 

is  well  on  toward  youth  before  he  really  loves 
parents  and  friends.  We  should  not,  therefore, 
expect  too  much  of  dawning  capabilities  lest 
we  weaken  them  by  too  early  or  too  vigorous 
exercise. 

Propinquity  has  also  much  to  do  with  this 
matter.  The  child  becomes  attached  only  to 
those  with  whom  he  is  brought  in  contact; 
hence  it  follows  that  he  should  spend  his  early 
years  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  where  all  in- 
terest centers  in  the  home.  Attachments  and 
habits,  the  strongest  known  to  man,  are  now 
forming  for  life,  and  any  affection  or  occupa- 
tion which  seriously  diverts  attention  from  the 
home  must  prove  prejudicial  to  them,  no  mat- 
ter how  valuable  it  may  be  for  other  things. 
For  this  reason,  the  custom  of  sending  chil- 
dren early  to  school,  except  when  it  is  the  least 
of  two  evils,  should  be  abandoned.  The  estab- 
lishment of  a  wrong  relation  is  most  harmful 
because  of  the  fact  that  it  makes  more  difficult 
the  establishment  of  a  right  one  later.  If,  dur- 
ing the  years  that  should  be  devoted  to  the 
formation  of  family  ties,  other  absorbing  re- 
lationships are  allowed  to  share  the  child's 
mind,  we  must  not  complain,  when  later  on  it  is 


4  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

found  that  his  strongest  attachments  and  great- 
est interests  are  sought  outside  of  the  home. 
Statistics  show  that  children  entering  school 
under  seven  years  of  age  suffer  a  distinct  loss 
in  weight  and  nerve  power,  yet  how  often  we 
see  mothers  in  comfortable  circumstances 
eager  to  place  babies  of  four  in  the  kindergar- 
ten. The  fact  that  the  treatment  there  is  often 
more  humane  and  scientific  than  that  of  the 
home  does  not  remove  the  evils  just  stated. 
The  mere  nervous  excitement  attendant  upon 
getting  ready  for  school  at  a  certain  hour  not 
infrequently  deprives  the  child  of  all  appetite 
for  breakfast,  and  he  then  rushes  off  to  engage 
for  several  hours  in  directed  play,  while  all 
other  animals  of  the  same  age,  relatively,  are 
allowed  to  frisk  at  will  in  the  fields,  or  to  doze 
unmolested  when  tired.  Why  is  the  child  with 
his  millions  of  nerve  cells  denied  the  fresh  air 
and  the  freedom  so  necessary  to  the  develop- 
ment of  all  other  animals?  What  farmer  would 
subject  young  calves,  or  lambs,  or  colts,  or  any- 
thing that  breathes  and  has  money  value,  to 
the  same  treatment  ?  No  directed  "pl^Y?"  how- 
ever pleasant  in  itself,  is  pure  play,  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  child's  mind  is  on  the  stretch  to 


GROWTH  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS.      5 

observe  and  follow  the  teacher's  motions  and 
directions ;  hence  the  three  or  four  hours  in  the 
kindergarten  are  as  great  a  drain  upon  the 
child's  nerve  power  as  our  morning  in  the  office 
or  the  school-room  is  upon  us.  What  he  needs  is 
more  undirected  play,  more  rest,  more  repose, 
more  fresh  air. 

But  there  is  another  phase  of  this  import- 
ant subject.  The  child  becomes  more  and  more 
interested  in  his  school,  just  at  the  time  when 
uninterrupted  family  life  should  lay  the  foun- 
dation of  the  holiest  and  most  sacred  relation- 
ships. No  human  being  can  serve  two  masters, 
and  the  home  life  suffers  in  consequence.  Ten 
or  twelve  years  later  he  may  leave  home  with 
comparative  safety,  but  now,  in  infancy,  he 
receives  impressions,  cultivates  affections,  and 
forms  habits  which  cannot  be  gained  in  later 
years.  Failure  to  understand  this  principle  is 
the  one  cause  of  the  present  decline  in  home 
influence  and  parental  authority.  During  the 
first  seven  or  eight  years  of  life  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  center  the  child's  enjoyment 
and  interest  in  the  family  circle.  An  entertain- 
ing story  after  supper,  a  rosy  cheeked  apple  at 
bed  time,  some  domestic  animal  to  pet  and  fon- 


6  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

die  as  one's  own,  a  flower  bed  to  dig  and  culti- 
vate, keeps  many  a  boy  and  girl  from  perdition. 
Curtains  and  carpets  are  sometimes  preserved 
at  the  price  of  human  souls. 

Some  family  duty  is,  also,  of  great  value  in 
promoting  affection,  for  we  generally  learn 
to  love  those  dependent  upon  us.  But  these 
duties  must,  at  first,  be  very  simple  and  very 
few.  Putting  father's  slippers  ready  every 
evening,  placing  baby's  spoon  by  his  plate  at 
meal  time,  are  quite  sufficient  for  beginners, 
and  the  child  is  delighted  to  find  himself  of  use; 
while  if  no  one  but  he  is  allowed  to  perform 
these  little  services,  a  sense  of  responsibility 
and  helpfulness  is  gradually  developed — an  ac- 
quisition of  great  value  in  after  life.  Little  gifts 
at  Christmas  and  upon  birthdays  also  tend  to 
strengthen  affection,  if  they  are  the  product  of 
the  child's  ozvn  effort.  A  single  flower  seed 
sown  and  tended  by  little  hands  to  place  on 
mother's  stand  in  recognition  of  some  anniver- 
sary, brings  a  joy  to  both  recipient  and  giver 
which  no  expensive  purchase  could  bestow; 
while,  all  the  time,  loving  memories  are  taking 
root,  simple  habits  forming  which  will  follow 
one  to  his  grave.  Perhaps  no  single  device  is  so 


GROWTH  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS.      7 

valuable  in  promoting  these  qualities  as  is  a 
Christmas  tree  prepared  by  the  children  them- 
selves. There  is  the  saving  of  the  pennies ;  the 
chains  to  be  made ;  the  popcorn  to  be  strung ; 
the  delighted  and  important  consultations  in 
corners ;  the  wonderful  secrets  to  be  kept ;  the 
happy  dreams  and  the  presents ;  a  bit  of  card- 
board stitched  in  colored  wool  to  grace  father's 
new  book  as  a  marker;  a  bead  chain  for  the 
young  lady  of  the  family ;  a  spool  box  made  by 
the  son  for  mother,  and  regarded  by  all  the 
children  as  a  marvelous  work  of  art;  and 
grand-mother's  needle  book — Heaven  help  us! 
One  lies  before  me  now  made  in  my  own  child- 
hood for  one  of  these  occasions — a  poor  faded 
thing  fit  only  for  the  rag-bag!  The  fingers  that 
fashioned  and  the  hands  that  received  it  are 
resting  together  in  the  dust,  but  the  memory 
of  that  far  off  Christmas  morning  and  its  at- 
tendant associations  are  among  the  strongest 
influences  that  bind  me  to  home  and  family. 
These  early  memories  are  always  the  most  last- 
ing, and  children  united  in  a  loving  partnership 
during  infancy  are  apt  to  continue  the  rela- 
tionship through  life. 

Aside  from  these  considerations  it  is  well 


8  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

to  learn,  early  in  life,  the  enjoyment  that  may 
be  gotten  from  simple  things.  Wealth  may  be 
a  great  blessing,  and  often  is,  but  one  is  apt  to 
forget  that  the  truest  pleasures  are  not  bought 
with  money.  The  child  who  starts  upon  a  ca- 
reer of  indiscriminate  spending  is  always  dis- 
contented and  unhappy.  No  purse  is  long 
enough  to  supply  every  want,  and  life  is  robbed 
of  all  real  happiness  by  the  constant  desire  for 
some  new  possession  or  some  new  experience. 
This  mental  attitude  is,  of  course,  fatal  to  all 
spiritual  growth,  and  explains  why  children 
possessing  all  the  advantages  of  wealth  and 
opportunity  sometimes  appear  less  intelligent 
and  less  resourceful  than  those  in  poorer  cir- 
cumstances. Necessity  is  the  mother  of  inven- 
tion and  uneducated  human  beings  seldom 
make  an  effort  unless  impelled  by  want  or  de- 
sire. Fill  the  home,  especially  during  the  early 
years,  with  pleasant  and  tender  experiences, 
with  co-operative  occupations  and  amusements. 
We  begin  life  as  animals,  our  affections  are 
born  in  the  mere  animal  or  physical  sensations 
of  warmth  and  comfort;  later  comes  the  at- 
tachment to  pets — the  kitten  or  the  pony ;  then 
the  desire  for  the  companionship  of  other  chil- 


I 


GROWTH  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS.      9 

dren.  These  in  time  lay  the  foundation  for  love 
of  parents  and  of  other  adult  relatives.  The 
ties  of  home  cannot  be  made  too  strong  or  too 
lasting;  they  are  the  steps  by  which  the  hu- 
man soul  climbs  to  love  of  his  fellows,  to  altru- 
ism, nay  more,  to  the  love  of  God  himself.  The 
child  born  in  a  home  destitute  of  affection  sel- 
dom emerges  with  a  large  love  for  the  race, 
because  he  carries  with  him  the  loveless  rela- 
tions formed  in  the  family  and,  of  course,  it 
follows  that  one  who  has  not  learned  to  love  his 
fellow  whom  he  hath  seen  cannot  reach  the  cul- 
minating point  of  human  affection,  the  love  of 
God.  Home  cannot  be  too  peaceful,  too  happy, 
too  attractive.  It  is  when  development  is  ar- 
rested in  one  or  the  other  of  these  stages  that 
man  remains  a  materialist  and  fails  to  attain 
his  highest  possibilities. 

Another  great  aid  to  the  cultivation  of  affec- 
tion is  an  early  ac([uaintance  with  nature,  such 
an  acquaintance  from  infancy  as  can  come  only 
from  a  free,  untrammeled  companionship  with 
all  her  various  forms.  There  are  many  reasons 
why  this  should  be.  Man  enters  the  world  with 
about  one  hundred  fifty  rudimentary  organs; 
organs  which  are  now  of  no  use  except  as  a 


lo  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

sort  of  scaffolding  upon  which  other  organs  are 
built ;  for  nature  does  not  seem  willing  to  dis- 
card anything  once  miade,  preferring  rather  to 
change  it  gradually  into  something  else  as  the 
needs  of  the  organism  become  different.  Take, 
for  example,  the  tadpole ;  as  he  gains  in  growth 
his  tail  is  slowly  absorbed.  If,  for  any  reason, 
he  should  be  deprived  of  his  tail  he  would  have 
no  hind  legs  when  he  develops  into  a  frog. 
Ages  ago,  in  another  form,  man  lived  in  the 
water  and  required  a  breathing  apparatus  like 
that  of  other  aquatic  animals.  Traces  of  the  gill 
slits,  are  even  now  discernible  in  the  sides  of  the 
head  of  the  embryo  child  where  they  form  the 
basis  of  the  ear  passages,  organs  of  the  throat, 
etc.  Now  as  the  human  body  travels  upward 
through  all  its  various  stages  to  reach  its  pres- 
ent, development,  so  it  is  claimed  that  the  mind 
in  like  manner  repeats  the  experiences  of  the 
race,  each  stage  forming  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  next  is  based. 

Experiences,  reaching  through  ages,  may  be 
lived  in  a  few  weeks  by  us,  and  some  even 
come  to  us  before  birth.  It  is  interesting  to 
watch  the  child  as  he  passes  through  some  of 
the  more  easily  discerned  of  these  steps.  At  one 


GROWTH  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS.    1 1 

time  he  is  a  robber  and  pounces  down  upon  his 
playmates  pretending  to  rob  them.  He  is  now 
in  the  stage  of  development  represented  by  the 
race  as  it  roamed  the  ancient  plains  in  quest  of 
plunder.  Again  he  is  a  tramp  and  lives  the  mi- 
gratory life  of  remote  ancestry.  So  he  passes 
through  the  numberless  experiences  of  the  past 
and  under  proper  conditions  emerges  into 
healthy  mental  maturity.  But  if,  for  any  cause, 
he  is  arrested  in  one  of  these  stages,  the  effect 
is  deplorable.  Arrest  in  the  predatory  state 
may  mean  to  be  a  robber  in  one  form  or  an- 
other all  one's  life;  in  the  migratory  stage 
to  be  a  tramp;  and  so  of  the  others.  A  crimi- 
nal is  an  example  of  arrested  development. 

The  early  race  lived  with  nature.  Primitive 
man  worshiped  the  sun  and  moon.  God  dwelt 
in  the  fountains  and  the  trees;  stones  became 
charms  and  superstition  peopled  the  earth  with 
spirits.  Out  of  all  this,  man,  as  he  grows  intel- 
ligent, progresses  steadily  toward  a  pure  and 
elevating  faith.  Thus  it  is  with  the  child;  he, 
too,  must  pass  through  these  experiences.  Let 
him  pray  to  the  moon,  if  he  will ;  let  him  talk  to 
tlie  flowers  and  fill  his  dirty  little  pocket  with 
stones  which  he  fondly  believes  in  as  charms. 


12  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Let  him  pet  and  fondle  his  older  brothers,  the 
dog  and  the  horse ;  let  him  learn  to  love  all 
forms  of  nature.  His  faith  as  a  Christian  will 
be  stronger  for  these  experiences.  It  is  only 
when  man's  development  is  arrested  that  he  re- 
mains a  pagan,  a  worshiper  of  nature  instead 
of  nature's  God.* 


♦See  Drummond's  "Ascent  of  Man,"  Chapter  2;  also  "Peda- 
gogical Seminary,"  October,  1901;  "Some  Fundamental  Princi- 
ples in  Sunday  School  and  Bible  Teaching-." 


THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS.  13 

11. 
THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS. 

There  are,  in  the  human  body,  three  nerve 
centers  whose  well  being  is  of  commanding  im- 
portance to  health  and  happiness.  The  first 
of  these  is  situated  below  and  back  of  the  heart, 
and  its  condition  through  life  depends  very 
largely  upon  the  child's  condition  and  training 
during  the  first  ten  years.  Of  course  man's 
crowning  glory  is  his  soul,  his  spiritual  nature, 
but  as  all  the  manifestations  of  his  spirit  must 
be  made  through  and  by  means  of  the  body,  it 
follows  that  this  body  should  be  properly  de- 
veloped and  kept  in  the  best  possible  condition, 
if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  may  do  its 
work  well. 

I.  The  nerve  center  just  referred  to  has  much 
to  do  with  the  stomach  and  is  largely  the  cause 
of  what  is  called  the  "blues."  Its  unhealthy 
state  has  caused  many  a  man  to  give  himself  up 
for  lost,  and  is  the  prime  cause  of  more  than 
half  the  misery  and  despair  in  the  world.  It  is 


14  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

impossible  for  any  human  being  to  take  a  hope- 
less view  of  life  when  this  nerve  center  is 
strong  and  well.  How  important,  then,  that 
the  child  have  a  good  start  in  this  respect.  Dur- 
ing the  first  ten  or  twelve  years  he  is,  or  should 
be,  a  healthy  animal;  plenty  of  simple  food, 
plenty  of  sleep  and  much  living  in  the  open  air 
are  his  essential  requirements.  If  he  is  in  normal 
health  he  does  not  care  for  nor  understand 
the  sermons  we  so  persistently  preach  to 
him;  all  our  ethical  lessons,  with  their 
sugar-coated  moral  tucked  in  at  the  end,  slip 
from  him  as  easily  as  water  from  a  duck's  back. 
We  should  be  thankful  that  it  is  so.  It  is  the 
child's  only  protection  from  later  indifference, 
hypocrisy,  or  morbid  introspection.  When 
older  he  may  learn  by  these  means,  perhaps, 
but  not  now.  Nature  has  provided  other  teach- 
ers for  these  early  years,  but  his  chief  business 
now  is  to  gain  perfect  health,  a  strong,  vigor- 
ous body,  and  the  needed  sense  training  which 
cannot  be  acquired  later,  which  are  all  so 
necessary  to  the  well-being  of  this  important 
nerve  center.  No  social  elevation  or  wealth 
acquired  in  later  life  can  compensate  for  neg- 
lect of  these  requirements.  How  many  capi- 


THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS.  15 

talists  and  scholars  would  cheerfully  yield  half 
their  kingdom  could  they  gain  sweet,  refresh- 
ing sleep  and  be  able  to  enjoy  a  good  dinner! 
We  must  see  to  it,  therefore,  that  children  store 
up  in  early  life  nerve  force  for  later  years. 

2.  As  he  emerges  from  infancy  it  is  notice- 
able that  he  becomes  more  active;  the  tasting, 
touching,  and  smelling  of  every  object  that  he 
encounters  gradually  abate  as  he  gains  sense 
experience,  and  new  activities  com.e  into  play. 
Heretofore  his  motions  have  been  largely  such 
as  were  controlled  by  the  muscles  of  the  trunk 
or  body,  but  he  now  begins  to  use  those  of  the 
arms  and  legs.  Hitherto  the  large  head  has 
made  rapid  locomotion  somewhat  difficult,  but 
when  the  different  members  assume  juster  pro- 
portions he  becomes  more  and  more  active — 
running,  jumping,  and  climbing.  It  is  the  busi- 
ness of  these  years  to  cultivate  the  muscles  of 
the  arms  and  legs,  not  only  on  account  of  the 
mere  physical  growth  stimulated  by  this  means, 
but  also  because  the  will  depends  upon  this  sort 
of  exercise  for  healthy,  normal  development. 

This  nerve  center  supposed  to  be  the  special 
organ  of  the  will  is  situated  in  the  lower  and 
back  part  of  the  skull  above  the  spine.  Through 


i6  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

this  lesser  brain  the  will  controls  the  muscular 
system  and  the  highest  authority  in  America 
has  told  us  that  it  is  well  nigh  impossible  for  a 
strong,  healthy  will  to  exist  without  the  cultiva- 
tion of  these  muscles.  Schools  which  recognize 
this  necessity  provide  for  games  such  as  ball 
playing,  leap  frog,  battledoor  and  shuttlecock, 
and  a  host  of  others  which  give  the  activity  so 
much  craved  by  the  young,  growing  limbs.  It 
is,  therefore,  an  unfortunate  error  to  keep  little 
girls  shut  up  in  the  house  and  to  dress  them  in 
such  manner  that  free  play  of  the  limbs  is  pre- 
vented. A  tomiboy  usually  develops  into  a 
healthy,  womanly  woman;  a  pale,  delicate  girl 
becomes — what  ? 

3.  The  higher  nerve  centers,  those  which 
have  to  do  with  thought  and  the  higher  emo- 
tions, are  the  last  to  develop  and  are  dependent 
upon  the  muscles  of  the  fingers.  It  is  this  fact 
that  furnishes  the  argument  for  manual  training 
in  the  schools,  and  renders  wood  carving,  fancy 
work  and  weaving,  when  not  too  fine  or  intri- 
cate, of  immense  importance  to  the  growing 
boy  or  girl.  The  period  when  this  work  is  most 
beneficial  to  the  child  is  from  the  tenth  to  the 
fifteenth  year,  though  there  may  be  variations 


THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS.  17 

according  to  development  or  treatment.  Chil- 
dren begin  to  show  interest  in  these  occupa- 
tions about  the  ninth  year,  and  may  do  the 
coarser  kinds  of  sewing,  etc.,  with  great  profit. 
The  only  objection  to  this  time  is  the  general 
tendency  to  give  too  much  and  too  intricate 
work,  so  that  it  assumes  somewhat  the  char- 
acter of  drudgery,  whereas  the  tasks  should  be 
very  simple,  admitting  of  very  large  stitches 
and  employing  plenty  of  pure  color.  The  great 
importance  of  these  facts  is,  as  yet,  not  well 
understood  by  women  generally.  They  are  apt 
to  think  that  any  exercise  which  brings  the 
muscles  into  play  is  good — and  this  is  true  in  a 
general  sense — but  the  truth  which  needs 
strongest  emphasis  is  that  certain  nerve  cen- 
ters are  developed  along  with  certain  muscles, 
and  that  this  development  is  accomplished  best 
at  certain  quite  well  defined  periods  of  the 
child's  life. 

Moreover,  the  exercise  must  be  of  a  kind 
adapted  to  the  muscles  we  wish  to  train.  Young 
men  enter  our  Normal  colleges  every  semester 
confident  that  years  spent  in  felling  trees,  or 
following  the  plow,  have  given  them  superior 
muscle  training,   but  a  very  few  weeks'   ex- 


1 8  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

perience  teaches  that  such  development  is,  in 
many  instances,  but  Httle  better  than  none — so 
difficult  is  it  to  cure  bad  habits,  to  bring  stiff- 
ened muscles  into  play,  or  to  enlarge  nerve  cells 
that  are  dependent  for  healthy  growth  upon  the 
proper  exercise  of  certain  sets  of  muscles  at 
earlier  periods  of  life. 

The  higher  nerve  centers  (as  has  been  said) 
have  to  do  with  the  higher  emotions;  feelings 
of  benevolence,  the  desire  to  help  the  race,  to  be 
of  use  to  one's  fellows,  love  of  God — all  have 
their  seat  in  these  brain  cells  that  are  developed 
through  the  muscles  of  the  hands  and  fingers. 
There  is,  perhaps,  no  single  truth  that  has  so 
much  to  do  with  the  welfare  of  the  race  as 
this.  A  small,  undeveloped  hand  is  not  a  mark 
of  beauty,  as  some  think,  but  of  weakness;  a 
sure  indication  of  certain  neglected,  unedu- 
cated muscles,  and  a  consequent  lack  of  will 
and  of  emotional  strength. 

This  is  often  the  source  of  wrong  conclu- 
sions. For  instance,  an  individual  who  has  not 
attained  this  cultivation  of  the  fingers  may,  per- 
haps, possess  a  stronger  emotional  nature  than 
one  who  has  received  this  training;  but  this 
is  not  a  right  comparison.    What  one  is  should!  ' 


THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS.  19 

be  compared  with  what  he  might  have  been. 
How  much  richer  would  this  man  of  deep  emo- 
tions have  been  had  he  received  this  training? 
The  wealthy  and  the  very  poor  are  alike  handi- 
capped in  the  application  of  this  principle ;  one 
by  the  hard,  daily  grind  of  poverty  which  con- 
verts them  into  mere  machines,  and  the  other 
by  a  failure  to  understand  its  significance  and  a 
consequent  disinclination  to  all  labor,  particu- 
larly manual  labor.  This  is  only  natural. 
Few,  if  any,  are  inclined  to  work,  or  to 
make  any  kind  of  effort  unless  some  benefit 
is  to  be  gained  thereby.  When  once  it  is 
generally  understood  that  the  development 
of  the  higher  nerve  centers  and  the  higher 
emotions  depends  upon  the  cultivation  of  the 
fingers,  and  that  the  time  for  this  cultivation  is 
from  the  ninth  to  the  fifteenth  year,  there  will 
be  a  marked  change  in  public  sentiment.  Not 
Dnly  will  the  rich  feel  that  their  children's  wel- 
"are  depends  upon  a  recognition  of  and  con- 
formity to  this  truth,  but  the  mutual  attitude 
>f  capital  and  labor  must  change  because  expert 
;kill  in  hand  work  will  give  the  employer  a  re- 
pect  for  the  strength  and  patience  necessary  to 
uccess  in  this  kind  of  occupation.  Nothing  so 


20  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

tends  to  sympathy  as  a  common  experience. 
Some  one  has  said  that  to  help  an  ant  one  must 
be  an  ant;  so,  to  understand  and  appreciate 
the  dignity  of  labor  one  must  labor.  Knowl- 
edge in  this  field  cannot  be  gained  by  proxy. 

An  organ  is  ready  for  work  at  the  time  it  at- 
tains its  growth,  and  this  readiness  is  generally 
indicated  by  an  interest  in  the  kind  of  work 
the  organ  is  intended  to  do.  So,  in  general,  it 
is  a  good  thing  to  consult  the  child's  inclina- 
tions when  planning  his  occupations.  Of  course 
this,  like  every  other  rule,  can  be  carried  to  ex- 
tremes. Any  one  can  recall  children  who  are 
never  required  to  do  anything  against  their 
wishes,  and  who  flit  from  one  fancy  to  another 
in  a  manner  suggestive  of  very  injurious  hab- 
its. A  sharp,  clean  cut  distinction  should  al- 
vrays  be  drawn  between  this  sort  of  dissipation 
and  a  genuine  interest.  Necessarily  the  child 
must  have  a  great  deal  of  latitude  in  early 
years.  His  object  just  now  is  to  gain  many  new 
interests ;  something  which  cannot  be  done  un- 
less he  is  allowed  numberless  experiences,  and 
large  freedom.  System  and  thoroughness  are 
a  drawback  to  this  kind  of  growth ;  their  time 
comes  later.  Nevertheless  this  does  not  mean 


THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS.  21 

that  during  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years  the 
child  should  flit  frorm  one  object  to  another 
until  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  concentrate  his 
mind  upon  anything  for  more  than  a  moment 
at  a  time.  As  he  nears  his  teens,  all  the  tastes 
and  fancies  that  have  sprouted  during  infancy 
and  childhood  should  begin  to  arrange  them- 
selves. Some  will  drop  out  of  existence  alto- 
gether, and  some  will  gradually  expand  with 
his  mental  growth  into  instruments  of  good 
or  evil,  for  he  now  begins  to  show  the  results 
of  earlier  training.  While  it  is  important  that 
the  child  should  have  large  opportunities  for 
observation  and  day  dreaming,  yet  at  the  same 
time,  certain  habits  of  application  should  have 
begun  to  shape  themselves  in  his  mind  and  a 
certain  sense  of  responsibility  should  be  aroused 
if  he  is  to  become  useful  and  efficient  later  on. 

Every  phase  of  education  has  its  own  par- 
ticular period,  and  nothing  is  more  fascinating 
than  the  study  which  is  to  enable  us  to  know 
not  only  what  is  to  be  done  but  when  to  do  it. 
Perhaps  an  illustration  will  make  this  point 
clearer.  Children  are  interested  in  the  phenom- 
ena of  nature  at  a  very  tender  age.  In  fact 
their  attention  is  attracted  to  these  as  soon  as 


22  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

they  begin  to  notice.  It  follows  that  they  should 
live  much  of  the  time  with  nature  from  birth. 
Delay  in  this  companionship  is  often  disastrous 
to  this  interest.  The  child  of  six  or  eight  is  de- 
lighted to  work  in  a  garden,  to  sow  seeds  or 
rake  the  soil,  and  when  you  gain  his  confidence 
he  will  entertain  3^ou  for  hours  with  tales  of  the 
robin  that  lost  its  leg,  or  the  bobolink  that  an- 
swered his  call.  But  let  this  dawning  interest 
be  starved  or  stifled  and  we  have  indifference  in 
later  years.  Last  spring  some  older  pupils, 
about  three  hundred,  were  given  flower  seeds 
with  instructions  concerning  the  planting  and 
care  of  the  plants.  At  the  same  time  seeds  and 
instructions  were  given  to  an  equal  number  of 
primary  children.  In  the  early  autumn  these 
gardens  were  examined  with  the  result  that  just 
twenty  times  as  many  neat,  flourishing  flower 
beds  were  found  in  the  gardens  of  the  smaller 
children  as  in  those  of  the  grammar  grades.  The 
reason  is  not  far  to  seek ;  the  time  for  the  best 
and  fullest  cultivation  of  this  interest  had  gone 
by.  Then,  too,  the  older  children  had  a  greater 
number  of  interests.  Their  attention  has  be- 
come dissipated  by  the  numberless  attractions 
of  the  bicycle  and  the  rowing  party,  the  foot 


THE  THREE  NERVE  CENTERS.  23 

ball  game  and  the  hunt,  until  growing  flowers 
seemed  very  tame,  and  one  recognizes  the  grim 
humor  of  the  B  7th  composition  which  stated 
gravely  that  the  only  real  use  of  the  flower 
bed  was  to  provide  blossoms  for  the  button- 
hole "when  a  boy  went  out  of  an  evenin.'  " 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  suggest  the 
following  truths : 

Each  nerve  center  has  its  own  appropriate 
set  of  muscles  upon  which  it  depends  for  devel- 
opment. 

Each  set  of  muscles  has  a  definite  time  or  age 
for  development. 

The  higher  emotional  nature  depends  upon 
the  development  of  the  fingers  and  hand. 

If  we  accept  the  division  of  time  suggested 
by  Dr.  Sherman  Davis,  we  may  say : 

Period  of  first  teeth — sense  training  related 
to  groups  of  ganglia  or  nerve  center  back  of 
and  below  the  heart. 

Period  of  second  teeth — muscle  training  of 
arm  and  leg  related  to  development  of  the  will. 

Period  of  wisdom  teeth — development  of  the 
higher  emotional  nature.* 

*liea.d  .S'coWs  Orga/iii:  EJiicaito/i,  ChvLpicr  I;  A  Stiidv  in  Vouth- 
fiil  Degeneracy,  Peda},'-0(,'ical  Seminary,  pa«-e  221;  The  Study  of 
Motor  Ability  of  Children,  Knn\x3MeLe.\>ox\.  of  U.  S.  Commission- 
er of  Education,  vearlS97-X,  Vol.  II,  Fape  1291;  Influence  of  Exercise 
on  GrovJth,  Journal  Expcr.  Med.  lS9f>,  Vol.  I,  Pa(,'-e  510;  delation 
Between  Growth  and  Disease,  American  Medical  Association 
1891;  .Significance  of  Palatal  Deformities  in  Idiots,  Journal  of 
Medical  Science,  London,  Jan   1H97,  Vol.  43,  Pajre  72. 


24  .  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

III. 

THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS. 

IV/r UCH  has  been  said  in  the  former  chapters 
■^  "^  to  show  that  the  chief  function  of  edu- 
cation in  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years  is 
the  cuhivation  of  a  strong,  healthy  body,  and 
that  neglect  of  this  is  sure  to  entail  suffering  or 
weakness  in  after  life.  But,  while  bearing 
this  in  mindj  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this 
period  is  also  most  important  to  mental  and 
moral  development,  and  that  whether  we  so 
intend  or  not,  nearly  all  the  fundamental  pro- 
cesses of  education  have  been  established  or  ar- 
rested long  before  the  child  reaches  his  teens. 
Now,  of  course,  if  the  child  has  intelligent, 
capable  parents  and  an  ideal  home  it  would  be 
far  better  for  him  not  to  enter  a  school  room 
during  his  first  decade,  but  since  many  intelli- 
gent people  have  not  the  opportunity  to  devote 
themselves  to  their  children's  education,  and 
since  many  more  are  not  able  to  do  this  work 
even  when  leisure  permits,  it  follows  that  the 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACH:ERS.  25 

primary  school  is  a  most  valuable  and  necessary 
institution,  a  sort  of  auxiliary  home,  in  which 
the  true  teacher  becomes  a  kind  of  foster  parent 
to  carry  on  the  training  which  must  be  given 
during  this  period ;  but  as  the  rare  attempts  at 
foster  parenthood  among  the  lower  animals  are 
generally  rendered  unsuccessful  through  lack 
of  experience  and  knowledge  of  conditions,  so 
in  the  school  room  much  havoc  is  wrought  by 
its  assumption  of  responsibilities  which  do  not 
belong  to  it. 

Nothing  is  more  fatal  to  either  an  individual 
or  an  institution  than  an  attempt  to  relieve  it  of 
duties  peculiarly  its  own.  As  the  poor  are  pau- 
perized and  debased  by  any  assistance  which 
does  not  render  them  self-dependent,  so  is  the 
home  shorn  of  its  greatest  strength  when  its 
sacred  obligations  are  relegated  to  another  in- 
stitution. The  home  must  continue  to  be  the 
educational  institution  par  excellence,  while  the 
church,  the  school,  and  the  state  must  rally  to 
its  aid,  if  only  for  their  own  self  preservation ; 
but  their  support  must  be  of  such  a  character  as 
shall  recognize  its  needful  supremacy,  and  rein- 
force its  dignity  and  its  power  to  maintain  it. 

Many  people  seem  to  assume  that  education 
-3 


26  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

begins  with  the  child's  entrance  into  the  school 
room,  but,  in  point  of  fact,  it  commences  in  the 
cradle,  and  children  learn  many  rudimentary 
principles  long  before  they  can  talk.  During 
childhood  the  young  have  a  multitude  of  teach- 
ers whose  methods  are  of  the  best,  and  whose 
success  is  always  assured.  Their  ends,  whether 
good  or  bad,  are  invariably  attained.  They 
work  unceasingly  during  every  waking  mo- 
ment, and  all  we  can  do  is  to  secure  the  condi- 
tions under  which  these  influences  act  favorably 
to  the  child's  best  development;  like  a  mirror, 
he  reflects  his  surroundings  most  truthfully. 
Chief  among  these  teachers  are  Observation, 
Imitation,  and  Habit. 

OBSERVATION. 

If  it  were  possible  for  us  to  remember  and 
relate  first  impressions,  we  would  be  much 
astonished  to  learn  how  early  observation  be- 
gins to  act  its  part.  Shortly  after  birth  the 
child  notices  light,  then  color — red  or  yellow 
being  the  first  to  attract  attention.  So  import- 
ant and  lasting  are  these  first  sense  experiences 
that  the  kindergarten  suspends  a  red  or  yellow 
ball  over  the  cradle  as  the  preliminary  step  in 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  27 

that  color  training  of  which  they  are  so  justly 
proud.  Statistics  show  that  children  thus 
trained  are  rarely  if  ever  color  blind.  Of 
course  other  sense  impressions,  notably  that  of 
touch,  are  equally  permanent  and  vivid — that 
of  sight  being  prominently  mentioned  because 
it  is  a  familiar  illustration  of  this  principle. 

IMITATION. 

As  the  child  grows  older  the  power  of  obser- 
vation grows.  Appearance  and  actions  are 
noted  and  distinguished  and  at  a  very  early  age 
he  begins  to  imitate  what  he  observes.  It  is 
impossible  to  over-estimate  the  power  acquired 
from  this  second  teacher.  Imitation  has  been 
the  chief  agency  in  making  the  world  what  it  is 
to-day,  and  to  it  you  and  I  owe  our  customs, 
our  dress,  and  our  habits  of  life.  Without  it  the 
human  race  would  still  be  merely  animals,  and 
our  little  animal,  the  child,  would  be  incapable 
of  education.  To  be  sure,  he  cannot  learn  in 
our  adult  way  but  only  as  a  child.  Things  of 
an  abstract  nature  are  unnoticed  by  him,  but  he 
observes  and  imitates  all  he  sees  and  hears; 
nothing  objective  escapes  him.  This  suggests 
the  keynote  of  all  successful  training.  The  child 


28  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

is  influenced  by  zvhat  zve  do;  hence  the  neces- 
sity of  absolute  honesty  and  genuine  kindness 
in  the  home  and  in  the  school  room.  Do  we 
wish  him  to  be  truthful,  to  respect  law,  to  love 
his  neighbor  as  himself  ?  All  these  things  must 
be  seen  in  his  own  home  and  in  the  school,  for 
the  child  reflects  with  unerring  accuracy,  not 
what  he  is  told,  but  what  he  sees  others  do. 

Everyone  knows  of  the  imitative  power  of  the 
Chinese,  and  some  will  recall  the  anecedote  of 
the  California  mistress  who,  upon  the  departure 
of  Kate,  her  Irisli  cook,  installed  the  second  girl, 
the  celestial  John,  in  the  kitchen.  At  the  end 
of  the  week  came  the  usual  supply  of  groceries 
which  the  new  cook  was  directed  to  put  away 
"just  as  Kate  did,"  and  forthwith  commenced  a 
most  startling  performance.  John  proceeded  to 
take  toll  of  every  article  before  placing  it  in  its 
proper  receptacle.  First  a  few  ounces  of  butter 
were  taken  from  a  roll,  wrapped  in  paper  and 
placed  under  one  end  of  a  couch ;  a  handful  of 
tea  disappeared  as  if  by  magic  in  a  glass  jar  be- 
hind the  wood  box,  and  in  a  few  minutes  all  the 
petty  dishonesties  of  months  stood  disclosed. 
John  understood  a  little  English  but  Kate's 
words  had  made  slight  impression  on  him.     It 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  29 

was  her  actions  that  were  painted  indeHbly  on 
his  mind. 

It  is  so  with  the  infant  child.  Words  are, 
comparatively  speaking,  unnoticed,  but  what 
we  do,  the  concrete,  is  closely  observed  and  imi- 
tated. These  earliest  impressions  are  the  deep- 
est and  last  the  longest.  When  the  mind  be- 
comes enfeebled  by  age  or  disease  it  loses  its 
latest  acquisitions  first.  Very  old  people  recall 
with  accuracy  occurrences  of  early  childhood, 
while  the  events  of  later  years  are  entirely  for- 
gotten. It  is  this  fact  that  makes  the  good  home 
so  important  and  so  sacred. 

If  the  relationship  suggested  in  the  first  chap- 
ter has  been  faithfully  maintained  during  in- 
fancy there  exists  a  sympathetic  understanding 
in  the  home  which  is  unattainable  under  other 
conditions.  As  all  the  manifestations  of  spirit 
must  be  made  by  and  through  our  physical 
bodies,  so  all  our  affections  must  have  a  sense 
basis  from  which,  under  proper  care,  they  de- 
velop healthily  and  normally.  It  is  generally 
when  the  affections  are  arrested  in  this  early 
stage  that  a  human  being  becomes  a  materialist 
in  doctrine  and  a  sensualist  in  practice. 

As  has  been  said,  the  best  teacher  for  the  lit- 


30  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

tie  child  is  a  good  mother.  The  world,  it  is 
true,  is  full  of  noble  foster  parents  but  every 
fiber  in  the  child's  body  yearns  for  sympathy,  a 
mother's  love,  and  long  before  he  is  able  to  ex- 
press himself  in  words  he  knows  by  instinct 
whether  the  arms  that  encircle  him  are  his 
mother's.  Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  this 
sympathy,  and  no  human  being  can  become  a 
complete  substitute  for  the  mother.  A  weak, 
careless  mother  may  be  better  for  the  child 
than  a  good  teacher  or  family  relative. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  child  who 
loses  its  mother  at  birth  and  falls  into  the  hands 
of  a  good  step-mother  never  knows  the  differ- 
ence, and  it  is  often  asserted  that  the  young 
step-mother  feels  the  same  affection  for  the  lit- 
tle orphan  as  for  her  own  offspring.  Such 
a  condition  seldom  exists.  Nature  never  in- 
tended that  a  relationship  so  sacred  should  be 
counterfeited.  In  an  orphan  asylum  the  chil- 
dren are  generally  better  fed,  better  clothed, 
and  better  cared  for  than  they  ever  were  in 
their  own  homes.  The  nurses  love  and  caress 
them,  but  upon  every  face,  even  of  the  babies, 
is  a  certain  pathetic  expression  which  shows  the 
unconscious  craving;  for  mother's  love.  As  well 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  3i 

might  one  say  that  the  hapless  chick  hatched  in 
an  incubator  is  as  happy  and  comfortable  as 
one  born  under  more  natural  conditions,  as  to 
say  that  human  babyhood  perfectly  fulfills  its 
destiny  save  in  its  mother's  arms. 

Some  time  ago  six  little  children  attended  a 
certain  school.  The  father  was  a  drunkard, 
the  mother  washed  for  their  daily  bread,  and 
the  children  were  ragged  and  dirty  (before 
they  entered  and  had  received  clothing  from 
the  teachers.)  The  matron  of  a  benevolent  in- 
stitution undertook  to  place  them  in  a  better 
environment,  and  called  upon  the  teachers  for 
their  help  in  making  the  transfer.  To  her  as- 
tonishment they  declined,  giving  as  their  rea- 
son that  the  children  loved  their  mother  dearly 
and  were  happy  in  their  attachment  to  one  an- 
other. True,  they  would  have  had  better 
clothes,  better  food,  and  a  cleaner  home,  but 
after  all,  parental  love  "is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law"  during  the  child's  period  of  nurture. 

We  are  often  much  amused  at  the  child's 
power  of  imitation,  and  nowhere  is  this  more 
strikingly  shown  than  in  his  play.  We  are 
coming  to  realize  that  play  is  the  child's  best 
teacher.     Watch  the  baby  girl  as  she  washes 


32  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

and  dresses  her  doll,  prepares  its  imaginary- 
meal,  takes  it  out  for  a  walk.  Every  act  is  a 
copy  of  what  she  sees  in  the  home,  and  all  is 
a  preparation  for  the  duties  of  later  life. 

But  play  means  more  than  this. 

Every  child,  in  a  sense,  goes  through  the  men- 
tal and  physical  experiences  of  the  race.  Proof 
of  this  theory  is  traced  in  children's  games, 
each  of  which  is  supposed  to  indicate  the  period 
of  development  of  the  child  at  that  time.  For 
instance,  we  find  our  boy  at  one  time  with  an 
inclination  to  live  in  caves;  at  another  he  de- 
lights in  pursuit  and  capture;  at  another,  in 
deeds  of  bravery.  These  are  generally  thought 
to  be  mere  games  which  the  child  selects  by 
chance  or  in  imitation  of  other  children,  with- 
out regard  to  their  order  of  development ;  but, 
in  point  of  fact,  each  of  these  games  is  indica- 
tive of  a  certain  period  in  the  race's  history. 
The  child  plays  at  being  a  robber  because  he  is, 
at  that  time,  living  the  experiences  of  the  race 
at  the  time  when  all  were  robbers.  When  he 
plays  at  being  a  tramp  he  is  in  the  stage  in 
which  his  ancestors  were  migratory.  These 
phases  of  civilization  show  more  plainly  and 
last  longer  with  some  children  than  with  others. 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  33 

but  all  have  them  in  greater  or  less  degree 
They  promote  healthy  and  normal  growth.  The 
only  possible  danger  in  indulging  them  is  thr.t 
the  mind  may  be  arrested  in  one  or  the  other  of 
these  stages.  The  child,  whose  body  grows  to 
manhood  while  his  mind  remains  in  the  migra- 
tory period,  becomes  a  tramp;  if  he  does  not 
develop  beyond  the  predatory  age  he  becomes 
a  robber,  and  so  on.  A  criminal,  as  said  be- 
fore, is  an  example  of  arrested  moral  develop- 
ment. In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  consider  the 
means  of  preventing  this  arrest;  but  we  will 
now  return  to  our  subject. 

HABIT. 

The  child's  teachers  considered  thus  far  are 
Observation,  Imitation,  and  Plays.  Few  ap- 
preciate the  immense  importance  of  these  fac- 
tors in  the  child's  education,  and  still  fewer 
understand  that  he  learns  far  more  from  his 
games  and  other  associations  with  children, 
than  from  any  school  yet  organized. 

The  ease  with  which  the  child  forms  habits 
is  another  peculiarity  which  renders  the  first 
ten  years  so  important.  Perhaps  no  one  has 
ever  given  the  physiological  basis  of  habit  bet- 


34  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

ter  than  Dr.  James,  of  Harvard  University. 
He  says,  in  effect,  that  all  sensations  enter 
through  the  senses — such  as  the  sense  of  touch, 
or  sight,  or  hearing.  That  which  enters  the 
brain  must  come  out  again.  Now  the  pathway 
traversed  by  these  discharged  sensations  be- 
comes a  habit  if  used  often  enough. 

To  explain  more  fully — Suppose  a  child  sees 
or  hears  something  which  angers  him.  In- 
stantly a  message  is  flashed  from  a  nerve  center 
to  the  appropriate  muscles  telling  the  hand  to 
strike,  or  the  foot  to  kick.  If  this  message  is 
obeyed,  a  faint  pathway  through  the  brain  is 
traced.  The  next  similar  feeling  of  anger 
transmits  a  similar  message  and  the  obedient 
muscles  again  strike  or  kick.  The  same  path 
is  traversed  by  this  second  discharge,  and  the 
channel  is  worn  a  little  deeper.  Suppose  this 
line  of  action  is  followed  day  after  day.  Is  it 
not  clear  that  after  a  time  the  child  will  kick  or 
strike  automatically  whenever  he  is  angered? 
This  automatic  impulse  is  a  habit. 

The  reason  habits  are  so  easily  formed  in 
childhood  lies  in  the  fact  that  more  blood  is 
supplied  to  the  brain  during  this  period,  and  the 
brain  is  softer  and  more  plastic.    For  this  rea- 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  35 

son,  too,  the  habits  and  impressions  of  infancy 
and  youth  are  the  strongest,  those  which  come 
to  us  last  being  the  first  to  leave. 

These  physiological  facts  are  of  great  mo- 
ment, and  suggest  that  moral  teaching  is  made 
most  effective  by  personal  example.  The  child 
is  interested  in  the  object,  the  concrete,  and  imi- 
tates what  he  sees.  Let  him  observe  our  gen- 
tleness or  truthfulness  and  he  will  follow  that, 
if  it  is  not  beyond  his  power  to  appreciate. 

Bvery  good  impulse  should  find  outlet  in  an 
appropriate  action,  else  it  is  lost  and  the  capa- 
bility for  future  good  impulses  is  weakened. 
So  if  the  child  reads  a  touching  story,  sees  a  pa- 
thetic play,  or  is  touched  by  some  scene  of  suf- 
fering, the  feeling  of  pity  thus  aroused  should 
find  an  outlet  in  some  kind  action,  even  though 
trivial.  In  this  way  the  habit  of  alleviating, 
suffering  is  formed,  which  will  grow  with  the 
child's  growth,  unless  we  drain  his  sympathies 
by  too  early  and  too  active  stimulation. 

There  is  great  danger  of  this  latter,  especi- 
ally when  the  child  is  particularly  susceptible 
to  feeling  keenly  the  sufferings  of  others.  Pre- 
cocity in  any  direction  should  not  be  encour- 
aged, for  the  child  pays  dearly  for  it  in  later 


36  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

life.  Remember  that  it  is  the  business  of  the 
first  twelve  years  to  cultivate  a  healthy,  happy 
body  as  the  foundation  of  later  muscular 
strength  and  nerve  force.  But  let  us  remember 
to  cultivate  this  healthy  body  by  exercising  it 
in  giving  utterance  to  good  impulses  through 
appropriate  action. 

The  dawn  of  the  higher  emotional  nature 
comes  with  the  dawn  of  the  period  of  adoles- 
cense,  and  the  child  should  enter  this  period  of 
his  life  with  emotions  fresh,  and  with  fancy 
free.  Undue  excitement,  undue  stimulation 
of  any  sort  is  largely  responsible  for  the  jaded, 
blase  little  men  and  women  one  so  often  meets. 

Some  times  the  children  are  so  overworked 
that  they  have  no  nerve  force  left  for  the  duties 
or  enjoyments  of  later  years.  What  is  taken 
for  indifference  or  cynicism  is  really  fatigue. 
Often  a  baby  of  three  or  four  years  is  enrolled 
in  a  kindergarten ;  he  loves  the  teacher,  and  the 
games  and  the  community  life  appeal  to  him. 
His  naturally  bright  mind  becomes  still  brighter 
under  this  stimulation.  At  six  he  enters  the 
primary  school  and  continues  to  delight  both 
mother  and  teacher  until  he  reaches  the  third 
or  fourth  grade,  and  then  our  prodigy  begins 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  37 

to  show  an  alarming  change.  The  lessons  once 
so  easy  are  dull  and  difficult.  The  teacher 
whose  room  he  has  just  entered  does  not  "un- 
derstand him."  She  fails  "to  explain"  suffi- 
ciently, and  school  becomes  hateful  to  him. 

The  difficulty  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  child  is 
simply  worn  out.  All  the  strength  and  nerve 
force  which  should  have  been  stored  up  for  the 
wear  and  tear  of  later  years  has  been  exhausted 
by  his  too  early  application  to  work.  He  is  not 
able  to  go  on  any  more  than  a  locomotive  is 
able  to  move  after  the  supply  of  coal  and  water 
is  exhausted.  Everyone  is  familiar  with  exam- 
ples of  this  kind,  and  many  know,  also,  that 
statistics  show  that  the  child  entering  school 
under  seven  loses  in  weight  and  is  retarded  in 
growth  during  the  first  year.  Who  will  make 
the  application  ?  Is  it  not  possible  that  the  con- 
ditions for  "race  suicide"  begin  right  here? 

LAW  OF  ASSOCIATION. 

The  fourth  and  last  teacher  to  be  mentioned 
is  the  law  of  association,  which  means  that  if 
two  things  are  once  associated  together  in  the 
mind  the  later  appearance  of  one  will  recall  the 
other.     This  principle  is  wonderfully  useful  in 


38  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

many  ways  by  helping  to  fix  or  recall  that 
which  we  wish  to  remember,  but,  like  every 
other  good  thing,  it  is  capable  of  working  mis- 
chief under  unfavorable  conditions.  We  let 
the  child  play  in  a  certain  room  some  morning. 
Our  return  to  the  room  a  week  after  recalls 
the  play  to  the  child's  mind  even  though  it  may 
not  have  occurred  to  him  in  the  meantime.  And 
it  is  surprising  how  soon  these  associations  are 
formed.  A  romp  with  the  pillows  at  bedtime 
brings  a  request  for  a  romp  the  next  night. 

Good  or  bad,  happy  or  sad,  these  connected 
pictures  are  constantly  forming  the  child's 
mind  and  it  is  for  us  to  see  to  it  that,  so  far  as 
possible,  they  are  happy  and  good.  Even  very 
young  animals  show  the  influence  of  this  law. 
Their  tricks  are  learned  by  means  of  certain  as- 
sociations, and  many  have  heard  of  the  horse 
(not  young)  which  was  loaned  to  a  clergyman 
who  wished  to  take  his  friend  for  a  drive.  The 
road  chosen  happened  to  be  one  often  traversed 
by  the  horse's  owner,  and  the  clergyman's  cha- 
grin may  be  imagined  as  the  faithful  animal, 
of  its  own  accord,  would  draw  up  to  every  pub- 
lic house  on  the  road.  So  if  children  are  al- 
lowed to  play  in  a  certain  street,  or  garden,  or 


THE  CHILD  AND  HIS  TEACHERS.  39 

building,  a  later  return  to  this  place  will  recall 
the  occupations  associated  with  it,  and  render 
a  different  train  of  thought  difficult  to  follow. 

Human  intelligence  presents  many  strange 
inconsistencies.  This  law  of  association, 
though  often  disregarded  in  training  children, 
is  well  understood  and  keenly  followed  in  its 
relation  to  other  interests.  This  is  particularly 
true  in  an  army.  Visit  a  fort  at  sundown  when 
the  flag  is  being  lowered.  Observe  the  order 
and  precision  in  every  movement,  the  martial 
music,  the  bared  head,  the  respectful  silence  as 
the  sacred  emblem  flutters  to  the  ground.  All 
this  ceremony  and  parade  are  not  for  appear- 
ance only;  they  have  a  far  deeper  meaning. 
Everything  pertaining  to  the  flag  is  treated 
with  the  greatest  respect  and  formality.  Why? 
So  that  in  every  phase  of  the  soldier's  life  the 
presence  of  the  flag  shall  recall  the  feelings  with 
which  it  has  been  associated.  This  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  unity  and  strength  of  the  army. 
How  long  would  any  people  remain  united  if 
their  flag  was  treated  with  disrespect? 

So  too  with  the  religious  emotions.  Better 
a  thousand  times  that  no  prayer  be  offered,  no 
hymn  sung,  than  to  conduct  any  religious  exer- 


40  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

cise  with  children  who  are  laughing  and  chat- 
tering. They  should  never  believe  that  prayer 
or  praise  to  God  can  be  offered  under  such  con- 
ditions. When  once  the  child  makes  this  irrev- 
erent association  in  his  mind  he  has  taken  a 
long  step  in  the  direction  of  irreligion  and  un- 
belief. 

RESUME. 

1.  The  child's  education  commences  as  soon 
as  he  begins  to  take  notice,  and  his  character  is 
largely  formed  before  he  enters  school. 

2.  The  child  is  interested  in  the  concrete,  the 
objective;  he  therefore,  pays  more  attention 
to  actions  than  to  words. 

3.  The  chief  factors  in  his  education  are  ob- 
servation, association,  habit,  and  games  and 
plays.* 


♦Consult  the  following-  for  further  suggestions:  Study  of 
/miiatton— Annua.!  Report  Commissioner  of  Education.  Vol.  I, 
1896-97,  chapter  13;  hidnstrial  Education,  same,  page  443:  College 
Athletics,  same,  page  70S;  Physical  Tramina,  Annual  Reports  of 
Commissioner  of  Education,  1898,  Vol.  I,  page  487;  Babies  and 
Monkeys— 'Po'puXz.x  Science  Monthly,  Jan.,  1895,  Vol.  46,  page  371; 
The  Boyhood  of  Great  Men,  Annual  Report  of  Education,  1898,  Vol. 
2,  page  1294;  The  Sorrows  of  Childhood,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  9. 


WHAT  THE  CHILD  SHOULD  LEARN.  4* 

IV. 
WHAT  THE  CHILD  SHOULD  LEARN. 

"A  little  natural  philosophy  and  the  first  entrance  into  it  doth 
dispose  the  opinion  to  atheism;  but  on  the  other  side,  much  natu- 
ral philosophy  and  the  wading-  deep  into  it  will  bring  men's 
minds  to  relig-ion." — Bacon. 

TT  IS  generally  admitted  that  the  first  nine 
^  years  of  life  are  the  most  important  from 
an  educational  point  of  view,  but  compara- 
tively few  are  equally  clear  as  to  the  time  when 
the  child's  education  really  begins.  Fewer  still 
have  decided  convictions  as  to  zvhere  he  should 
begin.  Many  suppose  his  entrance  into  the  kind- 
ergarten or  the  primary  school  marks  the  be- 
ginning of  this  important  work,  while  others 
place  it  at  a  still  later  period. 

The  child  enters  the  world  in  a  perfectly 
helpless  condition.  Practically  he  is  blind,  deaf 
and  dumb;  unconscious  of  any  object — even  of 
himself.  Gradually  the  outer  world  is  revealed 
to  him  through  the  sense  of  touch.  This  awak- 
ens desire  or  inclination.  His  education  com- 
mences the  moment  this  inclination  or  desire 
encounters  opposition,  and  its  trend  is  deter- 


42  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

mined  by  the  manner  in  which  the  obstacle  is 
surmounted. 

Thus  a  very  young  babe  is  rocked  to  sleep, 
or  carried  to  and  fro.  A  few  experiences  of  this 
nature  teach  him  the  pleasurable  sensation  of 
motion  and  he  refuses  to  be  lulled  to  sleep  by 
other  means.  Whether  it  is  physiologically 
harmful  to  rock  a  child  to  sleep  or  to  walk  about 
with  him  is  not  now  the  question.  Do  his  de- 
sires conflict  with  the  parent's  will  ?  Here  his 
education  begins.  It  is  his  first  lesson  in  obedi- 
ence, and  according  to  its  method  he  takes  his 
first  step  downward  toward  self-indulgence  and 
ruin,  or  upward  toward  self-control.  Whether 
we  will  it  or  not,  we  find  ourselves  confronted, 
from  birth  to  old  age,  by  obstacles  which  we 
must  surmount  or  to  which  we  must  yield.  The 
decision  as  to  which  ones  shall  be  overcome,  and 
'which  shall  be  permitted  to  prevail  against  us, 
constitute  the  chief  problem  of  life.  The  abil- 
ity to  overcome  or  to  yield  as  judgment  may 
direct,  can  only  be  gained  through  self-control, 
and  self-control  comes  only  through  practice  in 
obedience  to  law.  Law  must  come  to  the  child, 
at  first,  from  without.  Later  he  finds  it  within ; 
he  becomes  a  law  unto  himself.    But  until  the 


OBEDIENCE.  43 

knowledge  of  the  truth  has  made  him  free  he 
must  obey  external  law. 

Now  it  would  be  the  height  of  folly  to  as- 
sume that  all  children  learn  the  lessons  of  obed- 
ience with  equal  ease  or  in  the  same  time.  Her- 
edity and  environment  each  exerts  its  influence 
and  very  much  depends  upon  the  wisdom  of 
those  who  enforce  the  obedience.  The  require- 
ments at  first  should  be  few  and  simple,  so  as 
not  to  perplex  or  distress  the  little  ones  need- 
lessly ;  but  when  once  the  decision  has  been 
made  obedience  should  be  secured.  Under  such 
conditions  it  is  cruelly  wrong  to  issue  unneces- 
sary prohibitions.  The  best  and  wisest  of  us 
often  err  in  this  respect  because  our  childhood  is 
so  far  behind  us  that  we  have  only  a  misty  rec- 
ollection of  the  sharp  struggles  and  the  keen 
disappointments  of  infancy.  It  is  the  only  safe 
rule  never  to  say  "No"  or  "Yes"  to  a  child  un- 
less we  have  a  good  reason  for  doing  so.  Of 
course  conflict  is  inevitable  here.  Perfect 
agreement  between  the  parent's  will  and  the 
child's  would  show  the  inability  of  the  child  to 
choose, — a  condition  bordering  on  imbecility — 
or  else  the  governing  power  would  need  to  be 
omniscient,  while  the  governed  would  need  the 


44  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

ability  to  recognize  this  omniscience  under  all 
conditions,  coupled  with  a  self-control  so  mar- 
velous that  he  could  at  all  times  subjugate  his 
desire  to  his  judgment — conditions  impossible 
alike  to  the  adult  and  the  child.  But  the  neces- 
sity for  this  struggle  should  cause  us  no  anxiety ; 
it  should  be  welcomed  rather  as  nature's  method 
of  growth.  No  opposition,  no  combat ;  no  com- 
bat, no  growth.  Every  square  foot  of  earth  pro- 
claims this  universal  law  of  nature ;  every 
plant,  every  animal,  every  insect  living  upon 
the  earth  is  living  because  of  its  ability  to 
maintain  this  conflict.  Man  is  no  exception  to 
this  law.  Every  muscle,  every  nerve  and  brain 
cell  in  his  body  is  subject  to  this  law  of  growth 
manifest  in  all  other  forms  of  life,  while  our 
moral  and  spiritual  development  are  alike  de- 
pendent upon  the  same  all  embracing  principle. 
"To  the  stars  through  difficulties." 

USE   AND   ABUSE   OE    PUNISHMENT. 

Since  the  fundamental  principle  of  growth, 
physical  and  spiritual,  is  obedience  to  law,  it 
follows  that  the  first  lesson  for  those  who  know 
not  the  law,  must  be  that  of  obedience  to 
some  force  or  power  outside  of  themselves  and 


PUNISHMENTS.  45 

quite  other  than  their  will  or  desire.  Of  course 
at  a  later  period  the  element  of  choice  enters 
into  this  conformity,  but  now  they  are  receiving 
their  first  lesson  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  an- 
other. Judgment  has  not  yet  become  active. 
The  child  is  incapable  of  any  real  choice;  so 
the  first  page  of  life's  primer  demands  obedience 
per  se,  and  it  must  be  mastered  thoroughly  if 
he  would  read  the  succeeding  chapters  under- 
standingly.  The  child  may  not  wish  to  obey. 
Inclination  is  strong  and  he  feels  no  need  of 
disregarding  it.  Compulsion  may  become  nec- 
essary, and  this  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the 
question  of  punishments. 

Punishments  are  generally  of  two  classes: 
( I )  the  deprivation  of  certain  privileges,  as  the 
forfeiting  of  a  coveted  outing,  or  the  omission 
of  the  bed-time  story.  (2)  In  the  second  class 
are  included  all  attempts  to  "make  the  punish- 
ment fit  the  crime."  The  floor  littered  with  bits 
of  paper  must  be  restored  to  its  former  condi- 
tion; injury  to  property  must  be  repaired  to 
the  extent  of  the  offender's  ability — the  object 
being  to  awaken  the  child's  mind  to  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  rights  of  others,  and  at  the  same 
time  teach  him  to  feel  that  wrong-doing  always 


46  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

brings  with  it  the  need  of  reparation.  This  lat- 
ter class  of  punishment  is  in  all  respects  most 
logical  and  salutary,  but  there  are  cases — but 
not  many — where  neither  of  these  methods 
seems  efficacious,  and  appeal  is  made  to  physi- 
cal pain  or  discomfort. 

Of  Corporal  Punishment  so  much  has  been 
said  in  recent  years,  and  the  matter  is  so  im- 
portant, that  it  behooves  us  to  look  into  the  sub- 
ject with  some  care.  The  objections  made  to 
this  mode  of  correction  are  as  follows : — 

First — The  sensation  of  physical  pain  is 
evanescent ;  it  passes  off  more  quickly  than  any 
other  of  equal  intensity. 

Second — Physical  pain  causes  a  great  de- 
struction of  nerve  tissue,  and  is,  therefore,  from 
an  economic  standpoint,  a  most  expensive  and 
unwarranted  method  of  correction. 

Third — It  is  merely  an  appeal  to  our  animal 
nature,  and,  for  this  reason,  it  is  degrading 
and  brutalizing. 

Fourth — Real  obedience,  that  of  the  heart,  is 
never  gained  through  corporal  punishment. 

Fifth — The  highest  and  noblest  efforts  possi- 
ble to  man  are  obtained  through  interest — i.  e., 
our  best  is  attained  only  under  pleasurable  con- 
ditions. 


PUNISHMENTS.  47 

Sixth — Corporal   punishment   attacks   and 
dulls  the  child's  sense  of  honor. 

Let  us  consider  these  objections  for  a  mo- 
ment, at  the  same  time  bearing  two  cautions  in 
mind :  First,  that  nothing  is  so  false,  so  decep- 
tive, as  a  half  truth ;  second,  that  blind  adher- 
ence to  any  principle,  especially  when  accom- 
panied, as  it  often  is,  by  a  disregard  of  co-oper- 
ating or  adjusting  laws,  must  necessarily  result 
in  injury  if  not  in  the  total  subversion  of  the 
principle. 

As  to  the  first  objection,  that  physical  pain  is 
the  most  fleeting  of  all  sensations,  little  need  be 
said  since  the  argument  is  in  favor  of  rather 
than  opposed  to  its  use.  No  one  would  wish  to 
inflict  any  sort  of  punishment  that  could  last  an 
instant  longer  than  the  purpose  of  it  rendered 
necessary. 

The  alleged  destruction  of  nerve  tissue,  so  far 
as  it  is  true,  is  a  far  more  serious  charge  against 
this  means  of  coercion,  but  it  should  be  under- 
stood, clearly  and  unmistakably,  that  the  brutal 
and  unmerited  whippings  of  a  former  genera- 
tion are  not  considered,  and  therefore  not  reck- 
oned with  in  these  pages;  for  them  no  excuse 
can  be  offered  save  ignorance  and  that  mysteri- 


48  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

ous  and  all  pervading  influence  generally  known 
as  "the  spirit  of  the  times." 

History  teaches  that  severity  is  not  neces- 
sary to  the  efficacy  of  punishment — rather  the 
contrary — its  chief  requirements  being  just- 
ness, certainty,  and,  above  all,  a  perfect  adapta- 
tion to  the  physical  and  mental  status  of  the 
culprit.  Now  if  we  admit  that  the  human  child 
is  in  the  beginning  merely  an  animal  and  that 
his  spiritual  nature  is  a  potentiality  to  become  a 
reality  through  a  process  of  growth,  there  must 
be  a  mixture  of  physical  and  spiritual  influences 
used  in  his  correction.  This  evolution  may  be 
rapid  or  comparatively  slow,  being  dependent 
upon  heredity  and  environment.  Some  unfor- 
tunate beings  seem  to  be  arrested  in  this  animal 
stage,  and  to  remain  in  it  all  their  lives  (as  is 
true  of  many  criminals),  while  others  born  un- 
der happier  conditions  appear  to  grow  out  of  it 
very  early.  Now  while  the  animal  nature  pre- 
dominates appeal  may  be  made  through  physical 
pain  and  discomfort,  but  it  should  give  place  to 
other  means  as  rapidly  as  the  higher  nature  is 
awakened  and  the  child  becomes  amenable  to 
higher  motives  for  right  conduct.  The  infant 
has  no  idea  of  moral  duty,  and  a  few  light  slaps 


PUNISHMENTS.  49 

of  the  hand  with  a  reproving  countenance  are 
often  the  only  argument  the  very  young  child 
can  understand.  Such  admonition  best  fits  the 
conditions. 

A  kind-hearted  and  able  physician  once  stated 
that  when  the  little  body  was  stiffened  with  an- 
ger, the  limbs  rigid  and  the  face  red  with  con- 
gested blood,  a  few  light  slaps  upon  the  lower 
part  of  the  body,  acting  as  a  counter  irritant, 
gave  the  best  possible  relief  to  the  overcharged 
blood  vessels,  producing  a  similar  effect  to  that 
produced  by  the  mustard  plaster.  With  the 
average  child  the  necessity  for  this  mode  of 
punishment  ought  to  disappear  gradually,  and 
should  seldom  be  necessary  after  the  ninth  or 
tenth  year. 

Many,  of  course,  will  not  need  it  at  all ;  but 
it  is  to  be  feared  their  number  is  smaller  than 
maternal  affection  or  sentiment  leads  some  to 
think.  Our  chief  difficulty  in  child  training 
seems  to  lie  in  the  inability  to  see  that  the  child 
grows  in  a  regular  and  well  defined  order. 
Stage  follows  stage  in  an  appointed  suc- 
cession, and  each  stage  should  receive  the  treat- 
ment adapted  to  it.  While  it  may  be  possible, 
by  judicious  care,  to  make  this  progression  from 


50  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

stage  to  stage  more  rapid,  it  is  also  possible  that 
under  certain  other  conditions  this  natural  ad- 
vancement may  be  retarded  or  even  checked 
altogether  by  injudicious  treatment. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  nothing  can  be  gained  by 
urging  ethical  motives  for  conduct  before 
the  ethical  nature  has  budded,  for  we  know 
that  any  hot-house  forcing  of  spiritual  growth 
is  fatal  to  later  development.  All  danger  sig- 
nals must  be  regarded,  and  so  far  as  human 
wisdom  can  discern,  the  proper  remedy  for  each 
stage  should  be  provided.  The  immature  na- 
ture capable  of  appreciating  only  physical  sen- 
sations, must  be  appealed  to  through  his  physi- 
cal sensations,  and  neither  affection  nor  vanity 
should  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  child  we  love 
so  tenderly  is  to  develop  under  different  laws 
from  those  which  govern  and  always  have  gov- 
erned the  race. 

All  this  may  sound  despotic  to  advanced  no- 
tions of  child  education,  and  more  applicable 
to  a  primitive  age,  or  to  a  military  form  of  gov- 
ernment than  to  a  free  republic,  but  if  evolution 
is  the  law  of  the  universe,  does  it  not  suggest 
that  the  child,  passing  through  the  different  ex- 
periences of  the  race,  can  be  restrained  best 


PUNISHMENTS.  51 

in  each  stage  of  development  by  the  means 
that  have  been  adopted  by  the  best  and  most  in- 
telHgent  of  the  race  at  each  corresponding  step 
in  human  history  ?  Despotic  appeals  to  physical 
pain  seem  to  have  been  the  earliest  means  of 
control  employed  by  any  people.  Though  ad- 
vancement has  greatly  modified  these  elemen- 
tary practices,  is  it  not  probable  that  the  young 
child  passes  through  enough  of  this  early  ex- 
perience of  the  race  to  render  a  touch  of  them 
salutary  ? 

Does  it  seem  irrational  to  conclude  that  a  be- 
ing in  whom  the  animal  nature  is  so  prominent 
as  in  the  young  child  can  be  best  controlled, 
sometimes,  through  his  physical  sensations? 
Will  not  his  adherence  to  law,  in  future  years, 
be  stronger  and  more  enduring  because  it  has 
grown,  step  by  step,  from  this  physical  basis  in 
accord  with  what  seems  to  be  a  law  of  both  our 
physical  and  spiritual  development? 

It  is  useless  for  parent  or  teacher  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  children  must  grow  according  to 
natural  laws.  As  well  might  the  frog  refuse  to 
pass  its  childhood  as  a  tadpole,  or  the  butterfly 
to  crawl  before  it  flies,  as  for  man  to  refuse  to 
recognize  that  he  begins  life  as  an  animal,  and 


52  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

that  his  transformation  into  a  spiritual  being  is 
by  a  slow  process  of  growth  out  of  the  animal 
into  the  spiritual. 

The  most  serious  defect  in  our  system  at 
present  seems  to  lie  in  the  very  general  effort 
to  present  ethical  motives  for  conduct  before 
the  ethical  nature  is  sufficiently  developed  to 
appreciate  them.  History  reveals  the  fact  that 
no  race  of  people  has  exhibited  the  highest 
standard  of  virtue  in  its  childhood.  It  has 
grown  slowly,  step  by  step.  What  reason  have 
we  to  suppose  that  our  embryo  man  can  spring 
full-fledged  into  a  virtuous  manhood  ?  And  can 
it  be  brutalizing  to  use  the  means  of  correction 
which  best  answer  to  his  stage  of  growth?  It 
would  be  brutal  to  retain  this  mode  of  punish- 
ment after  the  child  is  capable  of  responding 
to  higher  motives,  and  the  higher  motive  should 
be  employed  as  soon  as  it  can  be  appreciated 
and  it  should  be  presented  to  him  repeatedly 
before  he  can  appreciate  it. 

It  is  true,  to  be  sure,  that  genuine  obedience, 
obedience  that  springs  from  the  heart,  is  not 
the  direct  result  of  coercion.  But  the  child  does 
not  rise  to  this  plane  of  duty  at  a  bound.  This 
moral    excellence    is    a    superstructure    whose 


MORAL  STRENGTH.  53 

foundation  is  obedience  to  external  authority 
which  has  become  habit  in  childhood.  To  ig- 
nore this  order  of  growth  is  an  error  too  pre- 
valent in  the  education  of  the  young. 

Then,  too,  we  are  prone  to  lay  great  stress 
upon  the  pleasure  of  work,  the  value  of  interest, 
its  effect  upon  effort,  etc.  While  all  this  em- 
phasis cannot  be  laid  too  early,  and  too  much 
cannot  be  said  in  favor  of  it,  there  is  another 
truth  equally  important  which  the  present  gen- 
eration is  in  danger  of  forgetting — the  import- 
ant part  which  struggle  plays  in  the  child's  de- 
velopment. 

One  thinker  has  said  that  the  child  gains  his 
moral  strength  through  the  conflict  of  his  own 
will  with  that  of  his  parents ;  and  he  adds  "that 
as  the  child  progresses  toward  manhood  he 
should  gradually  gain  his  freedom,  lest  he  know 
not  how  to  use  his  liberty  upon  reaching  matur- 
ity, and  how  to  govern  others  having  never 
governed  himself."  He  declares  that  "self-gov- 
ernment is  first  dependent  upon  that  implicit 
obedience  in  childhood  to  a  higher  will  which 
leads  to  self-control;  and  second,  to  judicious 
freedom  in  thought  and  conduct  which,  being 
gained  slowly  and  by  degrees,  gives  scope  to 


54  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

the  judgment.  Success  in  life,  great  or  small, 
is  determined  by  the  degree  of  self-control  that 
has  been  acquired. 

The  assertion  that  corporal  punishment  dulls 
the  child's  sense  of  honor  implies  that  the  sense 
of  honor  has  awakened  in  the  child.  When 
this  sense  has  become  active,  corporal  punish- 
ment is  never  the  remedy.  But  the  humiliation 
that  attends  the  violation  of  one's  sense  of  per- 
sonal dignity  or  honor  is  not  possible  to  a  child 
who  has  no  such  sense.  When  it  is  once  awak- 
ened the  child  can  be  better  controlled  by  other 
influences. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  decline  of  par- 
ental authority  during  the  past  quarter  of  the 
century.  There  are  grounds  for  this  charge. 
Not  least  among  these  is  the  fact  that  parents 
of  the  generation  now  reaching  maturity  re- 
ceived a  training  in  which  one  of  the  elements 
of  leadership  was  lacking; — that  of  freedom. 
Fifty  years  ago  a  child  in  a  well  ordered  home 
was  "seen  but  not  heard."  But  when  that  gener- 
ation neared  the  age  when  self-assertion  is  ben- 
eficial, pedagogy  took  a  turn: — the  little  child 
came  to  the  front  and  has  remained  there  ever 
since  as  leader  of  the  procession.   As  a  natural 


MORAL  STRENGTH.  55 

consequence  the  mothers  of  the  present  day- 
have  remained  in  the  background.  They  re- 
ceived the  necessary  training  in  obedience,  but 
the  freedom  which  should  have  come  later  was 
denied  them.  They  never  "came  out"  until 
called  to  assume  the  leadership  of  their  own 
home.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  judgment  was 
sometimes  lacking?  The  men  of  this  age  found 
a  partial  corrective  in  their  earlier  and  more 
active  contact  with  the  outer  world,  but  the 
error  has  affected  with  full  force  the  more  se- 
cluded girl  just  budding  into  womanhood. 

This  lack,  however,  will  not  be  felt  by  many 
of  the  children  now  nearing  maturity.     In  a 
majority  of  cases  they  have  enjoyed  unlimited 
freedom  from  babyhood,  the  preliminary  train- 
ing in  obedience  having  been  eliminated  from 
their  education.    Modern  sentiment  is  prone  to 
revolt  from  suppression  of  any  kind.    It  would 
be  wrong  to  deny  that  many  advantages  have 
'  accrued  to  children  under  this  freer  dispensa- 
1  tion,  but  the  evidence  is  cumulative  that  free- 
i|  dom  without  obedience  will  always  prove  as 
I  great  an  evil  as  obedience  without  freedom, 
jj  Life   is  a  partial   failure  everywhere  without 
!  both. 


56  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

The  leading  objectors  to  corporal  punish- 
ment are  not  always  our  ablest  thinkers.  With 
honorable  exceptions  they  are  persons  engaged 
in  occupations  offering  little  opportunity  for 
intelligent  personal  investigation  of  the  subject. 
This  retards  true  progress  for  the  reason  that 
there  is  always  a  large  number  of  people  who  are 
easily  swayed  by  what  seems  to  them  to  be  pub- 
lic opinion  because  it  happens  to  be  the  only 
opinion  publicly  expressed  at  the  time.  We 
should  be  slow  to  abolish  by  law  this  mode  of 
correction  from  the  school  where  children  of  all 
stages  of  development  are  grouped  together  un- 
der teachers  who,  in  their  efforts  to  maintain 
the  required  discipline,  are  often  led  to  the 
adoption  of  means  far  less  honorable  and  effica- 
cious; such  as  pinching,  jerking,  shaking,  hold- 
ing up  to  ridicule,  shutting  in  the  dark,  and 
"nagging;"  practices  too  often  the  recourse  of 
those  whose  poor  health,  lack  of  pedagogical 
training,  or  overcrowded  school  room,  make 
coercion  necessary  to  secure  order. 

But,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  corporal 
punishment  loses  its  efficacy  as  the  child  gains 
in  appreciation  of  higher  motives  for  conduct. 
Punishment,  to  be  effective,  should  be : 


MORAL  STRENGTH.  57 

First,  certain.  The  element  of  uncertainty 
often  seems  to  awaken  in  the  child  a  desire  to 
see  how  far  and  how  long  he  can  disobey  with 
impunity.  The  same  impulse  which  induces  an 
older  person  to  bet  on  the  board  of  trade,  or 
to  frequent  the  gaming  tables  at  Monte  Carlo, 
will  lead  the  boy  to  take  chances  on  his  teacher's 
patience  or  powers  of  endurance.  Punishment 
should  be  certain  for  many  reasons. 

Second,  it  should  be  just.  History  shows  no 
bloodier  page  than  that  which  records  the  race's 
struggle  for  fair  treatment;  and  no  effort  at 
restraint  which  lacks  this  element  is  effective 
for  long.  Though  our  ethical  standard  is 
•higher  than  his,  the  child's  moral  sense  is  often 
keener  than  ours.  His  horizon  is  narrow  and, 
therefore,  he  should  be  encouraged  to  state  his 
view  of  the  matter  and  punishment  should  not 
be  administered  until  there  is  sufficient  evidence 
that  the  child  believes  it  to  be  just. 

Third,  it  should  be  adapted  to  the  child's  de- 
velopment. It  is  the  height  of  cruelty  to  force 
upon  the  child  motives  he  cannot  understand. 
It  is  brutal  to  continue  a  mode  of  punishment 
that  he  has  outgrown.  Sound  judgment  and  a 
kind  heart  should  determine  both  the  rewards 


58  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

and  the  punishments  of  the  school,  and  they 
should  be  the  sound  judgment  and  kind  heart 
of  the  teacher  in  charge.  Farming  out  children 
for  punishment  to  the  principal  or  superintend- 
ent does  not  strengthen  the  teacher  and  is  gen- 
erally harmful  to  the  child. 

OTHER  PUNISHMENTS. 

The  same  general  principles  apply  to  all 
forms  of  punishment,  inasmuch  as  all  are  for 
the  same  purpose;  and  it  need  hardly  be  said 
that  the  mildest  means  that  will  accomplish  the 
desired  end  are  always  the  best.  Few  realize  the 
suffering  of  a  nervous  child  put  to  bed  in  the 
dark  or  shut  up  in  closet.  Tantalizing,  taunt- 
ing and  exposing  to  ridicule  are  especially  rep- 
rehensible. 

Whatever  the  means  of  correction  used  it 
must  be  remembered  that  its  efficacy  will  de- 
pend not  only  upon  the  spirit  and  manner  of  it, 
but  also  upon  its  infrequency. 

When  the  French  Revolution  was  at  its 
height,  once  sensitive  ladies  attended  public 
executions,  calmly  sipping  coffee  as  they  wit- 
nessed the  most  revolting  acts  of  cruelty.  We 
express  horror  at  the  brutality  of  our  ancestors, 


INFREQUENCY  OF  PUNISHMENTS.    59 

but  we  should  soon  find  ourselves  doing  the 
same  thing  under  similar  conditions,  simply  be- 
cause any  experience,  pleasurable  or  painful, 
will  affect  us  less  the  second  time  when  it  did 
the  first ;  every  repetition  lessens  the  effect  un- 
til we  become  in  a  measure  indifferent  to  what 
were  once  intense  feelings. 

This  law  must  be  taken  into  the  account  in 
the  child's  training,  since  we  are  apt,  other- 
wise, to  render  him  callous  to  all  the  means  we 
employ  for  his  improvement.  Wisdom  and 
self-control  are  never  more  necessary  than 
when  we  attempt  to  correct  the  fault  of  another. 
It  is  also  well  to  remember  that  the  immature 
mind  is  not  always  the  inferior  mind.  Superi- 
ority in  age,  the  relation  to  parent  or  teacher, 
or  any  other  exterior  condition  will  not  give  us 
governing  power  unless  we  have  learned  to 
govern  ourselves. 

"Punishments  as  seen  by  Children''  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol. 
3,  P.  235;  "Educative  Value  of  Children's  Questioninj?"  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  XLIV,  P.  799;  "Child  Study  &  Religious  Educa- 
tion" Child  Study  Monthly,  Oct.  1S96,  Vol.  2,  P.  289;  "Katiirue  in 
School  Children"  Educational  Revtevj,  Jan.  1898,  P.  34;  the  Public 
School  and  the  Public  Library"  Annual  Report  Commissioner  of 
Education  1898,  Vol.  1,  P.  487;  "The  History  of  Sunday  Schools" 
Annual  report  Com.  of  Education  1896-97,  Vol.  1,  P.  351. 


6o  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

CHAPTER  V. 

WHAT  THE  CHILD  SHOULD  LEARN.— 

Continued. 
F  WE  believe  that  among  the  first  lessons 


I 


the  child  must  learn,  is  obedience,  pure  and 
simple,  the  next  matter  for  our  consideration  is 
the  direction  this  obedience  shall  take.  The 
child  advances  from  the  general  to  the  specific 
application  of  this  law  and  learns  by  degrees 
that  while  he  is  expected  to  follow  the  actual 
guidance  of  those  around  him,  there  are  certain 
acts  which  are  always  forbidden  because  of 
some  inherent  quality  in  themselves.  This 
would  cover  such  infringements  of  the  moral 
law,  as  stealing,  lying,  and  the  like. 

Stealing. 

Of  course,  the  little  child  at  first  knows  no 
distinction  between  his  property  and  another's. 
He  learns  this  chiefly  from  the  way  in  which 
his  belongings  are  considered.  His  treatment 
of   his   neighbor   in   adult   life   depends   very 


FORBIDDEN  ACTS.  6i 

much  upon  these  first  experiences  in  the  home. 
Why  should  we  expect  him  to  grow  in  re- 
spect for  the  property  of  others  wlien  his 
treasures  are  kicked  about,  or  thrown  away,  or 
given  to  younger  brothers  or  sisters  without 
reference  to  his  wishes  ?  He  learns  by  what  he 
sees  more  than  by  what  we  tell  him,  and  if  his 
property  is  respected,  he  gradually  grows  into 
a  respect  for  the  property  of  others.  By  degrees 
this  distinction  may  become  sharp  and  clear; 
then  the  chances  are  that  in  manhood  he  will 
have  regard  for  the  Golden  Rule. 

Nearly  all  the  confusion  between  capital  and 
labor  has  had  its  counterpart  in  the  child's  ex- 
periences during  the  first  ten  years  of  his  life. 
If  his  rights  are  ignored,  why  should  he  not 
show  the  same  disregard  for  the  rights  of  oth- 
ers? At  first  it  shows  itself  in  appropriating 
the  things  belonging  to  others,  which  grows 
into  a  general  disrespect  for  others'  rights,  and 
an  inability  to  appreciate  what  is  due  to  them. 
It  has  been  observed  that  children  whose  fam- 
ilies have  been  pauperized  by  the  injudicious 
charity  of  churches  and  benevolent  societies 
are  generally  not  regardful  of  property  rights. 
This  does  not  necessarily  arise  from  any  inher- 


62  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

ent  dishonesty ;  it  simply  means  that  false  kind- 
ness has  prevented  any  sharp  distinction  be- 
tween mine  and  thine  from  getting  a  lodgment 
in  their  convictions,  and  they  feel  at  liberty  to 
appropriate  whatever  seems  desirable  without 
any  very  great  consideration  of  the  owners' 
washes.  Children  who  are  not  paupers  fre- 
quently show  this  lack  of  training  in  other 
ways: — fences  are  marked,  lawns  trampled, 
and  we  look  on  with  good  natured  indifference, 
failing  to  recognize  that  this  small  and  appar- 
ently unimportant  disregard  of  property  rights 
is  the  nucleus  of  future  oppression  and  strife. 
Later  experience  may  lead  him  to  a  recognition 
of  such  of  these  principles  as  are  necessary  to 
success  in  business,  but  a  real,  genuine  consid- 
eration for  others  must  be  taught  in  babyhood 
and  preserved  as  a  possession  of  inestimable 
value  throughout  the  years  of  growth,  if  it  shall 
become  an  ingredient  of  the  character. 

Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall  in  his  suggestive  paper 
on  "Children's  Lies"  gives  an  insight  into  this 
subject  not  realized  before,  and  which  every 
teacher  of  children  should  carefully  study.  It 
is  true  of  all  animals  that  they  lie,  so  far  as 
their  intelligence  permits,  and  man  inherits  his 


CHILDREN'S  LIES.  63 

full  share  of  this  propensity,  without  the  ani- 
mal's excuse  that  it  is  now  necessary  to  his  sur- 
vival. The  instinct  can  be  suppressed  most 
easily  in  early  childhood. 

In  the  animal  world  are  seen  many  evidences 
of  this  instinct  to  deceive.  Spiders  feign 
death  in  times  of  danger,  a  habit  followed  by 
many  small  animals  and  insects.  Birds  resort 
to  all  sorts  of  tricks  to  divert  an  enemy's  atten- 
tion from  their  nests;  while  the  fox,  the  dog; 
and  many  others  do  their  part  in  maintain- 
ing this  characteristic  whenever  self-preserva- 
tion or  interest  renders  it  desirable  or  necessary. 
The  little  child,  at  first,  lies  as  innocently  as 
other  animals,  which  of  course  is  no  lie  in  the 
moral  sense  of  the  word. 

Then  the  time  comes  when  the  imagination 
begins  to  bud,  and  some  children  find  it  hard  to 
distinguish  between  what  actually  occurred  and 
what  he  imagines  occurred.  And,  too,  there 
is  that  inability  to  relate  occurrences  accurately 
which  is,  in  some  degree,  the  effect  of  deficient 
sense  training,  and  memory.  A  short  time 
ago  a  daily  paper  gave  an  abstract  of  a  lecture 
on  lying  in  which  the  speaker  deplored  the  "fa- 
tal tendency"  of  children  to  imitate  and  spoke 


64  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

at  length  of  all  their  little  games,  such  as  keep- 
ing house,  playing  school,  tending  baby  and  the 
like,  as  the  beginning  of  this  sinful  habit.  De- 
luded soul,  he  failed  to  see  that  the  whole  race 
learns  by  imitation.  The  ability  to  imitate  in- 
telligently has  brought  Japan  to  the  front,  while 
the  inability  to  imitate  keeps  the  barbarian  bar- 
barous. 

If  the  hypothesis  that  man  inherits  a  ten- 
dency to  lie  in  common  with  other  animals  is 
excepted,  then  he  must  pass  through  this 
stage  of  race  experience,  as  he  does  through  his 
nomadic  and  robber  stages.  No  danger  need  be 
felt  for  the  normal  child  with  proper  training. 
It  is  the  child  who  is  arrested  in  this  stage  that 
becomes  and  remains  a  liar.  Of  course  we  all 
see  the  preventive.  The  child  must  live  in  an 
atmosphere  of  truthfulness.  His  gift  of  imita- 
tion enables  him  to  follow  what  he  sees,  and 
this  gradually  crystallizes  into  habit,  forming 
a  good  foundation  for  the  ethical  training  of  la- 
ter years.  It  is  easy  to  preach  to  or  nag  a  young 
child  until  he  becomes  either  a  hypocrite  or  a 
coward,  or  to  punish  so  severely  as  to  make  him 
an  accomplished  liar.  But  few,  if  any,  can  with- 
stand the  warm,  sunny  influence  of  a  kind  and 


SELFISHNESS.  65 

truthful  home  or  school.  There  are  times  when 
it  becomes  necessary  to  punish  falsehood;  but 
it  is  well  to  know  first  what  is  in  the  child's 
mind  before  doing  it.  A  kind,  sympathetic  talk 
with  him  will  often  reveal  ideas  or  deductions 
unsuspected  by  the  adult  mind,  which  show  a 
conscience  void  of  offense.  Surely  it  is  worth 
the  trouble. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  a  young  schemer 
is  most  artful  in  his  attempts  to  deceive.  It  is 
most  important  that  this  type  of  child  should 
not  be  allowed  to  escape  the  teachers'  or  the 
parents'  vigilance.  It  is  he  that  swells  the 
mournful  army  of  swindlers  and  defaulters 
found  in  the  various  avenues  of  business. 

We  place  many  obstacles  in  the  child's  way. 
The  deceptions  of  social  and  business  life, 
the  daily  insincerities  which  the  average  person 
practices  almost  unconsciously,  all  these  puzzle 
and  bewilder  the  immature  mind.  Surely  we 
who  provide  these  conditions  should  be  fair, 
and  act  as  truthfully  as  we  would  have  him  do. 

SEIvFISHNESS. 

Selfishness  in  the  young  child  is  merely  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation  which  he  shares  in 


66  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

common  with  other  animals.  At  first  it  is  per- 
fectly right  and  natural;  he  grows  out  of  it 
gradually  as  the  altruistic  attributes  of  his  na- 
ture and  feelings  of  sympathy  begin  to  assert 
themselves.  Too  strenuous  and  too  early  ef- 
forts to  teach  him  generosity,  self-denial,  and 
the  like,  react  dangerously  later  on.  His  at- 
tempts in  this  direction  should  be  few  and  sim- 
ple, at  first,  and  of  such  a  nature  as  to  give  him 
pleasure.  To  illustrate :  A  short  time  ago  a 
neighbor's  little  son  reached  his  fifth  birthday. 
An  aunt  sent  him  a  small,  heart-shaped  box  of 
bon-bons.  In  the  afternoon  a  few  friends 
called.  "Pass  your  pretty  candies  to  the  ladies," 
said  his  mother,  with  the  result  that  only  two 
poor  little  gum  drops  were  left  in  the  box.  Now 
don't  you  think  this  was  a  hard  lesson  for  the 
average  boy?  His  mother  wished  him  to  grow 
up  a  noble,  unselfish  man.  What  do  you  think 
of  her  methods  ?  Is  she  likely  to  succeed  in  her 
effort  ? 

The  Christian  religion  sometimes  requires  us 
to  give  up  all  we  hold  dear ;  but  we  rarely  meet 
this  demand  cheerfully  at  five.  The  average 
child  loves  to  share  his  possessions  occasion- 
ally ;   let  him  begin  by  doing  so  in  small  meas- 


FIGHTING.  67 

ure,  at  first — so  small  that  his  sense  of  loss  or 
deprivation  is  counterbalanced  by  the  sympa- 
thetic pleasure  he  feels — until  the  altruistic  na- 
ture begins  to  assert  itself. 

Fighting. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation.  This  shows  itself  in  various 
ways.  At  a  very  early  age  the  child  tries  to 
defend  himself,  to  protect  his  property,  or  to 
acquire  something  which  instinct  teaches  him  is 
desirable,  and  he  does  it  by  means  of  the  only 
weapons  known  to  him — his  teeth,  hands,  and 
feet — he  fights.  Remember,  he  is  yet  only  a 
little  animal  and  seeks  to  preserve  himself  as 
other  animals  do.  This  is,  therefore,  a  per- 
fectly normal  effort  in  line  with  all  the  instincts 
which  preserve  animal  life  from  extinction.  The 
child  must  pass  through  this  stage.  Nations 
have  not  yet  passed  beyond  it.  If  he  is  arrested 
in  it  he  will  go  through  life  a  brute.  Repugnant 
as  it  may  be  to  our  feelings  the  child  must  be 
allowed  this  experience.  It  is  necessary  to  his 
moral  growth ;  it  is  the  natural  and  healthy 
foundation  of  the  mental  and  moral  struggle 


68  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

which  every  man  maintains  if  he  prove  suc- 
cessful in  the  battle  of  life.  This  period  is 
passed  more  quickly  by  some  temperaments 
than  by  others,  but  evidences  of  its  existence 
are  most  noticeable  in  the  third  or  fourth  year 
of  school  life. 

Perhaps  most  of  the  nations  do,  or  have 
done,  their  bitterest  fighting  at  the  time  when 
the  great  majority  of  the  people  are  or  were  in 
the  same  stage  of  intelligence  as  our  aver- 
age boy  of  ten  or  twelve.  The  child  at  this 
age  has  a  keen  and  somewhat  poetic  sense 
of  justice.  Loss  must  be  compensated  and 
wrong  punished  without  delay.  He  is  in  the 
period  of  muscle  training  also,  and  at  once  pro- 
ceeds to  set  matters  right  in  the  only  way  that 
appeals  to  him.  One  reason  that  he  appreciates 
Buffalo  Bill  stories  and  others  of  their  kind  so 
keenly  is  found  in  the  swift  and  summary  pun- 
ishment meted  out  to  all  offenders.  The  crude 
sense  of  justice  depicted  in  this  class  of  litera- 
ture coincides  exactly  with  his  own  half-devel- 
oped ideas,  and  the  lurid  scenes  of  bravery  and 
bloodshed  do  not  seem  exaggerated  or  impos- 
sible to  his  childish  fancy  because  he  lives  in  a 
world  of  imagination  where  the  marvelous  is 
always  commonplace. 


FIGHTING.  69 

Fairy  tales  are  absorbed  eagerly  at  this  age 
and  earlier.  Red  Riding  Hood  is  a  great 
favorite  with  the  child  of  six  or  eight,  and 
his  sigh  of  relief  when  the  wicked  wolf  is 
dispatched  is  an  unfailing  indication  of  his 
sense  of  justice  satisfied.  Jack  the  Giant 
Killer  answers  the  same  need.  It  seems  only 
logical  to  meet  this  craving  with  the  best  sto- 
ries of  the  races'  great  battles.  Carthage  and 
Rome  will  fascinate  him,  and  the  Old  Testa- 
ment wars  will  appeal  to  him  more  strongly 
now  than  a  few  years  later,  for  the  reason  that 
he  is  in  about  the  same  stage  of  spiritual  devel- 
opment as  the  people  of  whom  he  is  reading 
and  is,  therefore,  ready  to  sympathize  with 
them  most  keenly. 

Later  on  he  will,  of  course,  appreciate  the 
grandeur  and  sublimity  of  the  Old  Testament, 
its  lofty  ideals,  and  noble  purposes,  in  a  man- 
ner and  degree  now  impossible;  but  just  now 
he  takes  this  initial  and  most  important  step 
in  his  study  of  the  Bible.  He  is  learning  to 
live  it,  to  sympathize  with  it,  to  see  the  har- 
mony between  its  narrative  and  his  own  ex- 
perience. For  this  reason  the  child  should  read 
the  Old  Testament  first,  reserving  the  altru- 


70  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

istic  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  for  the 
period  of  adolescence  when  the  altruistic  quali- 
ties become  active. 

Reference  to  literature  is  made  in  this  con- 
nection merely  to  show  why  the  child  prefers 
stories  of  conflict  at  this  age.  If  this  craving 
is  indulged  judiciously,  and  he  is  allowed  to 
fight,  when  he  believes  he  is  fighting  for  jus- 
tice and  right,  he  passes  through  this  stage  of 
development  safely,  and  is  stronger  and  more 
wholesome  for  the  experience.  It  is  well,  per- 
haps, that  nature  asserts  herself  so  vigorously 
in  this  matter  that  the  average  boy  follows  her 
promptings  in  spite  of  the  maternal  dictum  that 
"no  matter  what  happens,  little  son  mustn't 
fight." 

After  many  years  spent  in  the  school  room, 
the  writer  can  recall  but  one  instance  in  which 
a  mother  succeeded  in  enforcing  this  command 
literally  and  absolutely,  and  is  thankful  that 
she  can  recall  no  more.  The  victim,  when 
she  first  met  him,  was  a  boy  of  fourteen, 
very  tall,  well  proportioned,  with  excellent  fea- 
tures and  good  coloring,  gentlemanly  in  man- 
ner, the  pleasing  effect  of  which  was  somewhat 
marred  by  a  general  limpness,  both  mental  and 


FIGHTING.  71 

physical,  which  was  at  once  explained  when, 
after  some  indignity  offered  by  smaller  boys, 
the  mother  explained,  "My  son  is  preparing 
for  the  ministry;  no  matter  what  the  boys  do 
to  him,  he  cannot  fight,  he  has  never  struck  any- 
one in  his  life."  In  vain  the  teacher  pleaded 
for  a  saner  and  more  logical  treatment.  The 
result  may  be  imagined.  As  the  others 
learned  the  situation,  George  became  the  butt 
of  the  school.  Every  indignity  was  offered 
which  ingenuity  could  invent,  and  at  the  close 
of  each  session  he  generally  ran  across  thvi 
fields  followed  by  a  crowd  of  nimble  tormen- 
ters.  Years  have  passed  and  iGeorge  is  now  a 
man,  probably  in  the  ministry,  and  it  would 
be  interesting  to  know  how  well  the  dignity  of 
the  church  militant  is  maintained  by  one  who 
was  never  allowed  to  assert  and  defend  his 
own. 

Then,  too,  it  must  be  remembered  that  boys 
do  very  much  of  their  fighting  simply  to  deter- 
mine which  is  the  better  man ;  they  are  living 
in  the  period  of  conquest.  The  principal  of  the 
Grand  Rapids  Ungraded  School  reports  an  al- 
most total  cessation  of  street  fights  since  the 
boys  are  allowed  to  box  during  the  last  fifteen 
to  thirty  minutes  on  Friday  afternoon. 


72  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


VI. 

WHAT  THE  CHILD  SHOULD  LEARN. 
(  Continued. ) 

It  has  already  been  suggested  that  for  the 
good  of  the  nation,  as  well  as  the  individ- 
ual, children  ought  not  to  enter  the  school 
room  before  completing  the  eleventh  year.  It 
seems  absurd  to  most  readers  to  make  a 
statement  so  directly  opposed  to  the  prevail- 
ing opinion.  Emigration  brings  to  our  shores 
thousands  of  children  whose  first  and  only 
lessons  in  good  citizenship  are  gained  in 
the  public  schools  during  infancy  or  early  child- 
hood ;  then,  there  are  other  thousands  of  native 
born  parents  whose  indifference,  lack  of  prep- 
aration, of  opportunity,  or  of  money,  renders 
them  unfit  or  unable  to  assume  the  elementary 
education  of  their  children.  There  is  also  the 
youthful  army  of  bread-winners,  whom  stern 
necessity  forces  into  our  industrial  life  so 
early  that  they  must  attend  school  during 
childhood,  if  at  all;  and  there,  too,  is  the  un- 
fortunate only  child   whose   early  experience 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES.  73 

in  community  life  is  gained  almost  entirely 
from  the  same  source.  Earnest  and  fair-minded 
parents  entertain  a  wholesome  fear  of  defects 
in  education  which  may  handicap  their  children 
in  the  "competitive  examinations"  which  await 
them  in  every  corner  of  the  business  world. 
It  may  be,  therefore,  that  the  contents  of  this 
chapter  will  be  taken  with  many  misgivings 
as  to  their  common  sense.  Its  suggestions 
must  be  modified  and  adapted  to  the  environ- 
ment of  each  individual  child,  if  they  shall 
prove  of  any  value. 

Ideal  conditions  surround  the  child  when  it 
feels  the  blessed  influences  of  an  intelligent  and 
loving  home.  But  these  conditions  are  too  sel- 
dom realized ;  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  pub- 
lic school  with  all  its  imperfections  becomes  the 
chief  instrumentality  in  the  moulding  and 
leavening  process  which  converts  the  embryo 
anarchist  into  a  loyal  citizen,  and  imparts  hope 
and  intelligence  to  that  great  mass  of  human- 
ity which,  deprived  of  its  influences,  must  live 
as  the  beast  liveth.  Most  that  can  be  done  for 
the  following  generation  is  to  come  from  con- 
sidering all  the  conditions.  We  must  estimate 
even  the  defects  at  their  true  value,  and  then 


74  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

choose  the  best  that  each  one's  own  pecuHar 
circumstances  render  possible;  remembering 
always  that  a  blind  adherence  to  any  princi- 
ple, however  good,  often  defeats  the  end 
sought. 

Since  present  public  opinion  requires  chil- 
dren to  attend  school  in  their  infancy,  and  since 
the  average  parent  is  not  in  a  position  to  ignore 
this  requirement  without  placing  his  children 
at  great  disadvantage,  it  follows  that  all  de- 
sired change  in  the  process  of  educating  the 
young  must  be  brought  about  by  degrees. 

Under  present  conditions  the  child  is  almost 
exclusively  dominated  by  the  feminine  mind, 
and  as  this  state  of  things  will,  in  all  probabil- 
ity, continue  for  some  years,  it  becomes 
woman's  duty  to  fit  herself  for  the  task.  Moth- 
erhood will  take  on  a  higher  anda"holier  signifi- 
cance as  women  learn  better  how  to  study 
their  children  from  the  standpoint  of  science 
as  well  as  of  sentiment.  Sentiment  is,  of  course, 
a  most  important  factor  in  child  training,  but 
he  who  trusts  to  it  entirely  may  be  likened  to  a 
builder  w^io  fashions  his  structure  without 
foundation  or  scaffolding. 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUES.  75 

An  accurate  knowledge  of  conditions  and  a 
true  estimate  of  educational  values  are  the 
greatest  needs  of  the  average  woman.  Without 
them  we  fail  to  recognize  the  relations  of  the 
part  to  the  whole,  and  thus  many  a  fundamental 
principle  is  ignored,  many  a  defect  disregarded, 
because  its  importance  to  the  perfection  of  the 
structure  is  never  suspected. 

Take  for  illustration  the  universal  in- 
stinct of  children  to  destroy — a  disposition 
prominently  active  at  a  certain  stage  of  growth. 
It  has  its  place  and  value,  but  must  in  a  short 
time  give  place  to  another  impulse.  Failure  to 
understand  that  this  is  a  mere  animal  impulse 
is  the  cause  of  the  unrestrained  destruction  of 
trees  and  shrubs,  the  mutilation  of  fences  and 
buildings,  long  after  this  natural  instinct 
should  have  been  arrested.  The  American  is  a 
good  natured  soul,  and  sometimes  too  good- 
natured.  The  damage  may  be  trifling.  "Boys 
will  be  boys"  parents  say.  They  are  indiffer- 
ent, or  ashamed  to  complain  since  popular  sen- 
timent is  with  the  offender;  so  the  child  goes 
on  his  way,  and  no  one  seems  to  connect  the  ut- 
ter disregard  of  life  and  property  in  later 
life  with  the  pernicious,  unchecked  habit  of 
child  life. 


76  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Take  another  illustration.  At  five  o'clock 
all  street  cars  are  crowded.  A  mother  enters 
with  a  child  for  whom  no  fare  will  be  paid, 
5t  being  under  age;  the  car  becomes  filled 
to  overflowing,  but  the  child  retains  its  seat 
while  some  old  person,  perhaps,  paying  full 
fare  is  obliged  to  stand.  Who  can  say  that  this 
may  not  be  the  first  lesson  in  a  long  course  of 
training  which  eventually  produces  the  bank 
defaulter,  or  the  cool,  merciless  speculator  ni 
the  necessities  of  life?  Would  this  mother  so 
manifest  her  selfishness  were  she  trained  to  see 
the  connection  between  the  numberless  petty 
dishonesties  of  daily  life,  and  the  keen,  system- 
atic dishonesty  which  is  practiced  later?  "It 
is  the  little  foxes  that  spoil  the  vines." 

We  send  the  child  to  the  kindergarten  at 
four  or  five,  and  make  the  usual  transition  to 
the  primary  room  later.  What  the  active  young 
body  suffers  from  this  "promotion"  the  adult 
does  not  appreciate.  Seated  before  a  desk,  de- 
prived of  natural  unrestrained  freedom,  he  is 
suddenly  put  to  the  study  of  objects  much 
smaller  than  anything  previously  considered  by 
him.  Letters,  figures,  alphabet  cards,  and  the 
type  of  the  ordinary  reader  are  a  severe  tax 


NUMBER  WORK.  77 

upon  the  strength  and  nervous  energy  of  the 
little  fellow  whose  eyes,  unaccustomed  through 
thousands  of  years  of  ancestral  life  to  such  ex- 
ercise are  now  adapting  their  lenses  slowly 
(few  realize  how  slowly)  to  the  requirements 
of  civilized  man.  The  great  prevalence  of 
diseases  of  the  eyes  among  school  children  in 
later  generations  has  a  close  connection  with 
the  too  rapid  adaptation  of  the  "muscles  of 
accommodation"  to  the  work  of  the  school. 

Some  of  the  present  generation  escape  much 
of  the  senseless  thralldom  of  our  last  two  or 
three  generations,  for  we  are  slowly  growing 
in  knowledge. 

The  educational  value  placed  upon  the  study 
of  numbers  by  the  average  school  is  out  of  all 
proportion  to  its  real  worth.  True  the  "devel- 
opment" of  the  number  two  in  the  "baby 
class"  was  no  longer  continued  after  the  fact 
was  discovered  that  a  canary  bird  knows  the 
difference  between  one  lump  of  sugar  and  two, 
and  that  the  same  remarkable  perspicuity  was 
observed  in  the  case  of  young  puppies.  Some 
reckless  individual,  unknown  to  fame,  hazarded 
the  opinion  that  the  number  two  is  known  to 
the  cliikl  l^efore  he  enters  school.    This  settled 


78  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

it.  Hereafter  school  work  might  begin  with 
"three."  We  are  still  giving  the  child  much 
that  would  come  to  him  naturally  if  he  were 
allowed  to  wait  until  his  mind  was  ready  for  it. 
Aye,  there's  the  rub, — "when  the  mind  is 
ready."  Children  must  be  kept  off  the  street 
five  or  six  hours  out  of  twenty- four.  To  do  this 
we  must  keep  them  busy. 

The  educational  possibilities  of  manual 
work  and  of  gardening  are  known  to  but  few 
even  of  the  educators.  Their  equipment  costs 
some  money  it  is  true,  but  not  so  much  is 
needed  as  some  localities  expend.  The  study 
of  arithmetic  has  a  commercial  value  in  the 
eyes  of  the  father — who  earns  two  dol- 
lars a  day  and  has  six  children  who  must 
early  learn  the  secret  of  "getting  on  in  the 
world" — which  surpasses  that  of  manual  train- 
ing. Will  money-making  always  compel  us 
to  tear  the  bud  open  before  it  is  ready  to 
bloom  ?  What  the  little  learner  needs  is  to  see 
the  relations  between  things  before  he  deal? 
with  ideas.  Let  him  play  (or  work)  with 
blocks  until  he  knows  beyond  all  possibility  of 
doubt  how  one-third  or  one-fifth  of  a  thing 
compares  in  size  with  the  whole  thing.     Let 


NUMBER  WORK.  79 

him  learn  this  through  the  experiences  of  sight 
and  touch,  and  a  httle  later  his  mind  will  grasp 
the  various  combinations  of  numbers  with  a 
freedom  and  power  unknown  to  the  child  who 
has  juggled  with  figures  until  he  is  already  a 
mental  dyspeptic. 

But  we  are  forgetting  that  "seventy-five  per 
cent  of  our  pupils  leave  school  at  the  comple- 
tion of  the  fourth  grade."  Not  so  many  as 
that,  but  many.  Yet  the  gamin,  or  the  beggar 
understands  number  to  the  extent  of  his  neces- 
sity, which  is  often  far  beyond  the  attainments 
of  the  school-boy.  What  the  child  really  needs 
is  to  feel  that  number,  though  abstract  in  itself, 
is  connected  with  all  the  material  things  of 
life.  So  too  of  language;  the  sentence,  or 
clause,  or  connective,  whose  dead  form  he  sees 
laid  out,  as  if  for  burial,  on  the  pages  of  his 
grammar,  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being  in 
the  thought  and  feeling  of  the  warm,  pulsing 
myriads  of  human  beings  around  him.  These 
studies  seem  dry  and  hard  because  we  give 
them  to  the  child  before  they  enter  into  his  ex- 
perience. We  may  sugar-coat  them  with  at- 
tractive devices  and  colored  chalk  but,  nine 
times  out  of  ten,  he  is  interested  more  in  the 


8o  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

novelty  or  play  of  colors,  than  in  the  mathe- 
matical or  grammatical  facts  they  teach. 
Sometimes  the  child  spends  his  time  in  class 
not  in  the  search  for  truth  so  much  as  in  trying 
to  discover  what  his  teacher  would  have  him 
say.  That  is,  he  learns  to  follow  the  workings 
of  her  mind  rather  than  to  develop  the  power 
of  independent  thought.  This  is  not  the  best 
occupation  for  a  human  soul.  It  is,  however, 
an  excellent  training  for  a  puppet  who  is  to 
spend  its  life  either  in  the  treadmill  of  fashion- 
able society,  or  imprisoned  in  the  shop  or  the 
factory.  It  is  not  expected  that  a  machine 
shall  think. 

Parents  often  complain  that  their  children 
are  "so  dreamy"  in  school.  We  never  get 
nearer  to  heaven  than  in  our  day-dreams. 
They  lift  us  from  the  material  to  the  real ;  they 
perfume  the  lump  of  clay ;  they  imbue  the  clod 
with  life ;  they  transform  the  cell  into  a  palace ; 
they  expand  the  powers  of  the  soul.  In  prepar- 
ing the  child  for  future  bondage,  if  we  must, 
let  us  spare  him  the  one  gift  that  testifies  to  his 
immortal  lineage. 

We  are  told  that  the  public  school  does  what 
it  is  created  to  do  when  it  trains  the  masses 


EXPRESSION.  8i 

for  useful  and  honorable  citizenship  by  teach- 
ing them  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  It 
works  for  uniformity  and  exactness;  it  turns 
out  good  book-keepers,  alert  tradesmen,  care- 
ful workmen.  It  is  for  the  average  child,  not 
the  genius.  (How  would  Shakespeare  have 
come  through  the  treadmill  of  a  public  school? 
Probably  he  would  have  run  away.  Truancy 
is  not  always  crime.) 

The  private  school  is  often  sought  as  a  relief 
from  this  too  severe  training,  and  it  is  apt  to 
fall  into  the  other  extreme.  School  training,  like 
every  other  predetermined  course  of  procedure, 
has  its  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  It  is  the  fate  of 
nearly  every  virtue  that  it  has  its  corresponding 
vice,  into  which  it  may  degenerate  when  the 
part  is  mistaken  for  the  whole.  Formerly  it 
was  thought  that  the  commanding  function  of 
the  school  was  the  gaining  of  information.  To 
know  the  mechanics  of  knowledge, — the  pro- 
cesses in  arithmetic,  the  use  of  script  letters  in 
writing,  the  ready  pronunciation  of  the  words 
in  reading — was  the  first  thing  to  be  taught, 
and  these  were  then  to  be  used  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  child's  school  days  in  gaining 
the   knowledsre   embodied    in    the   text-books. 


82  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Fill  up  the  mind  in  school,  as  you  would  fill  a 
store-house  with  grain,  to  be  used  later  as  the 
exigencies  of  life  shall  require.  Nor  has  this 
primitive  notion  gone  out  of  the  convictions  of 
men. 

But  modern  education  is  declaring  that  the 
first  and  last  purpose  of  systematic  instruction 
in  school  is  expression. 

Since,  then,  expression  is  the  business  of  life, 
cultivation  of  the  means  of  expression  becomes 
imperative.  Tphe  artisan  who  best  expresses 
his  thought  in  a  bit  of  wood  or  metal  is  the 
most  successful.  This  is  true  of  the  artist  with 
his  brush  or  of  the  writer  with  his  pen ;  in  fact  it 
holds  good  in  any  of  the  seven  modes  of  expres- 
sion employed  by  man.  The  highest  mode  is 
language,  spoken  or  written.  The  ability  to 
communicate  with  one's  fellow,  is,  perhaps, 
man's  greatest  gift,  and  when  it  is  considered 
that,  at  first,  a  few  sounds  expressive  of  hun- 
ger, cold,  satisfaction,  and  the  like,  comprised 
his  entire  vocabulary,  that  no  word  was  ever 
formed  or  used  by  him  until  some  need  or 
emotion  forced  its  utterance,  we  will  begin  to 
understand  that  language  grows  as  the  soul 
grows,  and  that  no  one  is  prompted  to  speak  or 


EXPRESSION.  83 

write  until  he  has  something  to  say.  If  this  be 
true  it  would  follow  logically  that  no  child 
should  be  expected  to  talk  or  write  except  un- 
der the  impulse  of  interest. 

If  language  is  the  expression  of  thought, 
then  one  cannot  exist  without  the  other,  and 
each  must,  in  turn,  react  upon  and  develop  its 
complement;  so  the  child  must  be  given  sub- 
jects of  interest  to  him  in  his  life  rather  than 
ours,  and  he  will  then  express  himself  readily 
enough. 

We  must  remember  that  man  talked  a  long 
time  before  he  began  to  write.  The  child  fol- 
lows to  some  degree  the  order  of  development 
of  the  race.  The  average  city  child  or,  at 
least,  the  average  city  boy,  possesses  three  lan- 
guages— that  of  the  home,  of  the  street,  and  a 
third,  a  restricted  and  stilted  tongue  by  which 
he  tries  to  give  utterance  to  what  he  thinks  the 
teacher  wishes  him  to  say,  and  from  which  he 
seldom  lapses  in  her  presence  save  when  some 
emotion  surprises  him  into  naturalness.  It  is 
generally  conceded  that  the  structure  of  the 
child's  language  is  fixed  during  his  earliest 
years ;  some  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  his 
forms  of  speech  are  fixed  before  he  is  five  years 


84  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

old.  Of  course,  in  doing  this  he  imitates 
the  language  he  hears.  No  other  course  is 
possible  to  him.  Perhaps  this  is  the  reason 
why  people  of  wealth  and  refinement  place 
their  children  in  the  care  of  nurse  maids  who, 
generally  speaking,  are  unable  to  construct  an 
English  sentence  correctly!  We  are  fond  of 
saying  that  the  age  of  fetish  worship  is  long 
past,  but  the  fetish  is  still  with  us.  This  must 
be  so,  else  we  could  not  permit  the  child  to 
form  the  most  careless  habits  of  speech,  and 
then  place  him  in  the  charmed  atmosphere  of 
the  school  room,  resting  in  the  belief  that  the 
teacher  with  her  educational  sponge  can  wipe 
off  all  the  indelible  impressions  that  habit 
and  environment  have  graven  with  a  pen  of 
iron  upon  the  infant  mind. 

Alcott  says  "Man  does  only  what  he 
chooses."  It  is  equally  true  that  man  always 
lives  up  to  what  he  really  believes.  It  is  a 
question  whether  he  can  ever  lie  to  himself, 
however  much  he  may  try  to  do  so.  If,  for  in- 
stance, you  and  I  really  believed  that  certain 
early  influences  made  or  marred  the  child's  fu- 
ture usefulness  to  such  a  degree  that  all  later 
effort  could  only  modify,  never  entirely  eradi- 


IMITATION.  85 

cate  the  evil,  that  the  wounds  when  healed  left 
a  most  ugly  scar,  would  we  dream  of  submit- 
ting the  child  to  conditions  we  now  regard 
with  indifference  simply  because  we  entertain 
the  erroneous  idea  that  the  young  mind  is  a 
slate  from  which  all  habits  may  be  washed  at 
will? 

It  has  been  already  suggested  that  imitation 
is  a  powerful  factor  in  education.  Few  per- 
sons, if  any,  learn  to  speak  correctly  through 
a  study  of  grammatical  rules.  They  are  valu- 
able as  a  preliminary  exercise  in  logic,  as  an 
aid  to  acquiring  a  foreign  language,  or  in  set- 
tling knotty  questions  in  the  construction  of 
one's  own ;  but  the  child  speaks  what  he  hears. 
If  he  is  surrounded  by  cultivated  people  their 
speech  is  his  by  imitation,  and  this  is  equally 
true  when  the  conditions  are  reversed.  People 
who  have  read  and  studied  very  little  will  speak 
and  write,  with  habitual  correctness  and  ele- 
gance if  they  have  always  enjoyed  the  society 
of  good  models,  and  it  is  only  when  some  un- 
usual and  rare  construction  comes  up  that  their 
ignorance  of  syntax  becomes  apparent.  Of 
course,  any  young  child  is  apt  at  first  to  say 
"I  done,"  or  "It  is  broke,"  or  "I  seen,"  etc., 


86  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

but  if  pains  are  taken  to  make  him  use  the  cor- 
rect forms  a  few  times  each  day,  he  wiU  soon 
employ  them  habitually ;  not  because  he  knows 
any  reason  for  doing  so,  but  simply  because 
his  memory  will  remind  his  tongue  and  by  and 
by  he  learns  to  speak  correctly  as  he  would 
learn  a  tune.  Imitation,  training,  habit — these 
seem  to  be  the  whole  secret  of  early  language 
training,  and  many  teachers  make  note  of  the 
most  objectionable  errors  of  their  pupils  and 
give   frequent  practice   in  the  correct   forms. 

This  is  particularly  effective  in  treating  the 
mistakes  peculiar  to  the  locality.  Suppose,  for 
example,  that  the  children  in  a  district  are  ac- 
customed to  say  "trun"  for  thrown;  the  sim- 
ple devices  of  leading  the  pupils  to  make  up  lit- 
tle stories,  employing  the  correct  forms  of  these 
words,  using  only  the  odd  moments  when  one 
is  waiting  for  the  recess,  or  the  class  gong,  has 
an  educational  value  that  cannot  be  estimated. 
In  time  the  exercises  may  be  so  varied  and  so 
skillfully  conducted  as  to  modify  the  speech  of 
an  entire  neighborhood. 

Then,  too,  there  is  the  influence  of  good  liter- 
ature which  awakens  a  lively  interest.  A  child 
can   read   and  appreciate  a  book,   which  one 


READING.  87 

would  think  far  beyond  his  attainments,  pro- 
vided the  matter  interests  him.  The  fact  that 
he  does  not  know  many  of  the  words  does  not 
seem  to  deaden  the  interest  nor  to  mar  the  ef- 
fect upon  his  language,  and  as  he  grows  older 
these  words  return  to  him  with  their  true 
meaning,  particularly  if  he  is  allowed  to  read 
the  same  book  many  times.  Without  doubt 
many  children  do  too  much  desultory  reading 
at  too  early  an  age.  There  is  a  time  when  this 
is  necessary,  but  imtil  he  is  well  on  toward  his 
teens  it  would  seem  better  to  read  and  re-read 
a  few  books  thoroughly  than  to  swallow  like  a 
cormorant  many  books,  though  they  may  be 
good  literature.  It  is  well  to  give  him  early  a 
few  good  models  with  which  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  his  language.  Later  he  reads  omniv- 
orously,  not  for  structure,  but  for  information. 
The  two  processes  should  never  be  confounded 
or  one  mistaken  for  the  other.  (This  opinion, 
however,  is  controverted  by  many  excellent 
teachers. ) 

It  is  a  common  error  to  exi)lain  every  word 
the  child  reads.  If  assistance  is  given,  it 
should  only  be  that  which  will  bring  the  child 
into  sympathetic  touch  with  what  he  is  read- 


88  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

ing.  Suppose,  for  instance,  he  has  Whittier's 
Snowbound — any  narrative  or  incident  show- 
ing the  severity  of  a  New  England  winter,  the 
depth  of  a  fall  of  snow  in  that  locality,  the 
simple  comfort  and  family  joys  of  old-fash- 
ioned country  life,  would  be  in  order.  It  is  of 
no  consequence  whether  he  can  or  cannot  spell 
and  define  all  the  words  in  the  poem  or  draw  a 
correct  copy  of  the  andirons,  or  produce  a  sil- 
houette of  the  cat  generally  found  in  the  illus- 
tration on  a  certain  page.  What  shall  it  profit 
a  child  if  he  learns  the  whole  poem  by  heart  un- 
less he  understands  and  is  in  harmony  with  the 
environment  of  the  scene;  unless  the  beaiity 
of  its  picture  pervades  and  enlarges  his  mental 
vision  and  arouses  his  sympathy? 

The  mission  of  good  literature  is  just  this, 
and  if,  by  any  means,  he  fails  to  catch  its  real 
lesson,  then  he  may  gain  an  abundance  of 
ideas  and  facts  but  miss  the  growth  and  expan- 
sion of  soul  which  is  the  real  object  of  all  good 
literature.  So  let  the  child  brood  over  a  few 
good  books  if  he  will,  never  meddling  or  help- 
ing except  in  the  way  indicated,  and  not  doing 
this  unnecessarily.  He  will  be  stronger  and 
better  for  this  silent  uninterrupted  communion 


COMPOSITION.  89 

with  his  book  or,  rather,  with  the  people  he 
comes  to  know  there.  There  is  an  old  adage : 
"Beware  of  the  man  of  one  book."  Oliver 
Cromwell  was  one  of  these  men  of  one  book. 
His  was  the  Bible,  and  he  gave  liberty  of  con- 
science to  England. 

The  root  of  a  plant  grows  in  the  darkness; 
the  process  of  development  is  not  carried  on  be- 
fore the  curious  eye.  What  would  happen  if 
the  plant  were  dug  up  occasionally  that  we 
might  note  the  increasing  length  of  the  fibres, 
or,  better  stilly  that  we  might  watch  them 
grow  ?  We  seem  to  understand  plant  life  better 
than  our  own. 

The  child  must  write,  the  school  says,  write 
unceasingly,  whether  he  has  anything  to  write 
about  or  not.  But  a  wiser  injunction  is,  "First 
the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn 
in  the  ear."  "First  the  ear,"  the  school  says; 
no  wonder  that  the  full  corn  is  lacking. 

Man  took  ages  to  develop  oral  speech.  The 
little  child  should  do  an  immense  amount  of 
talking  before  he  begins  to  express  himself  in 
writing.  This  is  the  time  in  which  the  ear  should 
be  cultivated — something  almost  forgotten  in 
the   school.      The   young   writer   cannot   give 


90  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

attention  to  form  at  the  same  moment  that  he 
is  supposed  to  be  writing  from  impulse.  He 
cannot  kindle  the  celestial  fire  and  while  it 
burns  write  to  margin  with  ink  and  pen  and 
dot  his  i's  and  cross  his  t's  and  slant  all  his  let- 
ters according  to  rule.  Look  at  the  manu- 
scripts of  our  famous  authors;  not  all  were 
able  to  attain  excellence  in  mechanical  form 
while  burning  with  great  thoughts.  But  some 
seem  to  think  the  child  must  do  all  this  from 
the  start,  when  both  form  and  substance  are 
new  to  him. 

This  idea  is  hoary  with  age,  but  modern 
methods  are  better.  They  recognize  that  di- 
vided attention  by  young  children  is  fatal  to 
progress.  From  the  child's  experience  in  learn- 
ing to  talk,  we  should  direct  his  experience  in 
learning  to  write.  He  learns  to  talk  by  practice 
in  talking;  he  must  learn  to  write  by  practice 
in  writing.  In  writing — by  which  is  meant 
graphic  expression  of  thought — the  child's  at- 
tention must  be  held  to  what  he  wishes  to  say 
and  the  hand  must  obey  the  impulse  of  the 
mind,  as  the  tongue  obeys  the  impulse  of  the 
mind  in  learning  to  talk.  The  child  would 
never  learn  to  talk  by  first  making  a  phonic 


COMPOSITION.  91 

synthesis  of  each  word.  In  writing  he  simply 
draws  the  form  of  the  word  that  is  in  his  mind. 
It  may  lack  some  letters  and  other  things,  but 
the  muscles  of  his  fingers  draw  it  as  the  muscles 
of  his  vocal  organs  formed  his  first  words — by 
imitation.  Drill  in  perfecting  this  form  is  a 
separate  school  exercise,  not  to  be  confused  with 
writing,  any  more  than  a  phonic  drill  is  to  be 
confused  with  talking.  Soft,  unsized  paper,  a 
lead  pencil  not  too  short,  nor  too  hard,  and  well 
sharpened,  are  needed  to  lure  the  youthful  tyro 
into  this  avenue  of  expression.  Later  the  rocks 
and  sharp  stones  will  not  appear  so  formidable ; 
but  at  first  he  should  see  only  the  smooth,  in- 
viting sand.  Oddly  enough  this  figure  carries 
one  back  to  primitive  times  when  children 
in  many  a  dame's  school  took  their  first 
writing  lesson  in  large  boxes  of  fine  sand.  The 
characters  they  made  were  large  and  did  not 
strain  the  eye,  but  cultivated  the  necessary  free- 
dom of  the  arm.  "How  crude,"  we  say,  yet  we 
have  nothing  today  that  satisfactorily  takes  the 
place  of  that  obsolete  box  of  sand.  Children 
love  to  write  in  this  way.  Perhaps  our  early 
ancestors  did  the  same  in  the  first  stages  of  this 
art,  and  the  child  thus  repeats  the  experiences 
of  the  race. 


92  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Time  was,  also,  when  our  forefathers  gained 
from  myths  their  first  noions  of  justice,  truth, 
and  honor.  Vague,  imaginative,  hving  close 
to  nature,  their  dawning  emotions  could  find 
utterance  in  no  other  channel.  All  that  the  race 
felt  of  love  and  virtue  was  transmitted  in 
this  way.  The  little  child  must  travel  the  same 
road.  Why  not  allow  him  to  ride  in  the  same 
easy,  comfortable  conveyance  that  the  young  of 
all  ages  have  been  carried  in?  Later  he  must 
walk,  of  course,  but  he  will  be  stronger  because 
of  the  myth  and  fairy  tale.  His  crude  ideas  of 
justice  are  satisfied  when  the  wicked  giant  or 
the  cruel  witch  is  punished,  when  the  good  king 
is  rewarded,  or  the  fair  maiden  restored  to  her 
friends. 

Suppose  the  child  could  start  in  life  from 
our  commercial  point  of  view,  what  would  he 
be  when  a  man  ?  Hard  and  dry  as  a  nut,  with- 
out imagination,  enthusiasm  or  ideals.  Heaven 
preserve  the  child's  soul  from  an  exclusive  diet 
of  facts.  He  needs  facts  to  be  sure,  but  he 
needs  ideals  and  images  of  beauty  to  direct  the 
use  of  his  facts.  One  cannot  tie  the  mind  to  a 
little  circuit  of  facts,  as  he  would  tether  a  cow, 
and  escape  Gradgrind's  disaster.     Such  treat- 


LITERATURE.  93 

ment  is  proper  for  the  cow,  but  not  for  a 
growing,  aspiring  human  soul.  Then  give  him 
the  beautiful  myths  he  loves ;  let  him  love 
Santa  Claus.  His  childish  heart  will  respond 
to  all  these  pictures  of  nobleness  and  sacrifice. 
Later  they  fade  away  and  are  relegated  to  the 
background  as  pretty  fancies,  perhaps,  but 
their  impressions  remain.  He  has  grown  out 
of  them,  cast  them  aside,  but,  like  the  rudiment- 
ary organs  of  the  body,  they  form  the  founda- 
tions upon  which  his  present  ideas  of  justice 
and  virtue  are  built.  As  the  tadpole,  deprived 
of  its  tail,  fails  as  a  frog  to  develop  the  hind 
legs,  so  surely  does  a  human  soul  deprived  of 
the  nourishment  proper  to  each  period,  fail  in 
realizing  his  own  native  possibilities. 

One  does  not  feed  a  babe  on  meat.  The 
Old  Testament  teachers  understood  this  fact. 
It  is  probable  that  their  pupils  did  not  cavil 
aljout  the  size  of  the  whale's  throat,  or  ques- 
tion whether  or  not  the  sun  could  stand  still. 
The  thought  of  God's  love  was  brought  home 
in  a  way  that  would  best  appeal  to  them  in 
their  stage  of  development.  Perhaps  they  un- 
derstood the  figurative  language  of  the  East 
better  than  we,  but  the  lesson  was  taught,  the 


94  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

truth  implanted.  We  in  a  more  advanced  age 
may  criticise  as  we  will  the  means  used ;  but 
the  impression  was  made,  its  vehicle  has  per- 
formed its  task  as  no  other  could  in  that  time 
and  age.  All  along  the  road  the  child  gives 
outward  and  visible  signs  of  this  repetition  of 
his  race's  experience,  in  his  occupations;  his 
games;  his  reading;  his  interest  in  bead  work, 
weaving,  basketry,  and  pottery;  and  his  desire 
to  learn  of  primitive  peoples. 

Later  in  the  fifth  to  seventh  grades,  there  are 
reasons  why  he  does  not  like  to  sing.  There  is, 
of  course,  change  of  voice  in  boys  with  its  ac- 
companying self-consciousness;  but  greater 
than  all  is  the  fact  that  he  does  not  get  the  right 
kind  of  songs.  He  is  in  the  soldier  stage  and 
craves  martial  music.  Try  a  boy  with  chang- 
ing voice  on  whistling  popular  airs.  Cultivate 
rhythm,  by  the  use  of  the  bones,  drum,  clappers 
to  accompany  the  piano.  This  craving  for 
rhythm  sends  our  boy  to  clog  dances. 

After  change  of  voice  the  boy  who  sang  air 
is  suddenly  dropped  to  the  harmony  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  the  adjustment  of  a  strange 
voice.  Songs  in  unison  should  therefore  be 
alternated  with  harmonized  melodies.     There 


MUSIC.  95 

is  right  here  a  comparatively  untried  field  for 
composers  in  the  setting  of  songs  that  will 
give  the  boy-tenors  and  basses  the  melody, 
while  the  soprano  and  alto  voices  take  the  har- 
mony. 


96  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


VII. 

INFLUENCES. 

THE  fundamental  aim  in  all  education  is 
the  realization  of  true  family  life.  The  civ- 
ilization of  every  people  is  measured  by 
this  standard.  Human  greatness  has  its  rise  in 
the  home.  No  man  has  ever  attained  distinc- 
tion in  any  field  of  thought  or  industry  whose 
early  years  have  not  been  blessed  with  some 
enjoyment  of  home  life.  He  may  have  been  an 
orphan  or  been  born  in  poverty,  but  some  ex- 
perience of  home  has  crept  into  his  lonely  life. 
If  man  sprang  into  existence  full  grown,  ready 
for  all  the  emergencies  and  experiences  of  life, 
there  would  be  no  family  ties;  the  joys  and 
griefs  and  discipline  of  parenthood  and  child- 
hood would  be  unknown.  All  the  loving  care, 
the  self-sacrifice,  the  forbearance,  v/hich  have 
been  slowly  evolved  through  the  long,  long 
evolution  of  the  race,  would  be  unknown,  and 
we  would  have  no  more  sense  of  kindred  than 


INFLUENCES.  97 

a  chicken  or  a  cat.  The  intelHgence  of  animals 
is  in  proportion  to  the  length  of  their  infancy. 
Man,  the  highest  type  of  animal,  is  the  most 
helpless  of  all  creatures  at  birth.  The  ever  in- 
creasing experiences  of  each  generation  send 
each  succeeding  man  into  the  world  with  a 
larger  number  of  brain  cells.  The  greater  the 
number  of  these,  the  longer  he  remains  an  in- 
fant. If  it  were  possible  for  man  to  materially 
shorten  his  period  of  infancy  the  result  would 
not  be  so  beneficial  as  he  sometimes  imagines. 
The  two  great  necessities  of  the  home  are 
love  and  a  certain  degree  of  seclusion  or  ex- 
clusiveness.  A  too  public  life  dissipates  the 
affections.  To  love  God  and  one's  neighbor 
requires  frequent  and  close  communion.  Man 
is  not  prepared  for  either  until  he  has  learned 
the  alphabet  of  love  in  the  home,  where  he  mas- 
ters it  a  few  letters  at  a  time.  A  may  be  a  little 
poodle,  B  a  ragged  doll ;  each  succeeding  letter 
will  mark  a  higher  experience.  Formerly  man's 
safety  depended  upon  the  seclusion  of  his 
home,  and  now  that  he  has  passed  beyond  the 
need  of  mere  physical  protection  the  growing 
soul  demands  a  similar  seclusion.  The  young 
child  suffers   from  too  early  exposure.     The 


98  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

boarding  house  and  the  restaurant  work  seri- 
ous injury  to  him.  The  removal  of  the  front 
fence,  insignificant  as  it  seems,  is  performing 
its  part  in  destroying  the  home  feehng,  for 
now  a  seat  upon  the  front  porch  means  partici- 
pation in  the  life  of  the  street.  The  flat,  the 
hotel,  and  the  restaurant  are  blessings  to  those 
for  whom  they  were  originally  intended;  but 
the  little  child  does  not  gain  there  that  sense  of 
personal  responsibility  and  of  loving  sympathy, 
nor  experience  the  thousand  little  homely  joys 
and  privileges  which  may  be  his  in  the  humblest- 
cottage.  These  public  houses  have  an  expan- 
siveness,  a  sense  of  publicity,  to  which  the 
young  child  should  not  be  compelled  to  adapt 
himself.  Even  the  adult  needs  repeated  with- 
drawal into  the  privacy  of  the  home. 

Everything  that  tends  to  multiply  the  simple 
joys  of  family  life  is  distinctively  educative 
and  helpful.  The  Christmas  Tree  and  the  birth- 
day cake  do  more  than  the  spelling  book  to 
make  the  child  a  useful,  happy  man;  not  that 
we  love  the  speller  less,  but  the  child  more. 
The  whole  subject  resolves  itself  into  a  ques- 
tion of  values.  Education  means  the  ability  to 
estimate  truly  the  great  and  small  things  of 


INFLUENCES.  99 

life,  to  note  the  connection  of  each  to  the  whole 
and  to  place  each  in  its  proper  relations. 

The  good,  hot,  Sunday  dinner  eaten  by  the 
poor  laborer  in  his  own  kitchen,  in  the  society 
of  wife  and  children,  is  distinctively  educative. 
Perhaps  this  is  a  materialistic  view,  but  we 
must  pass  through  the  lower  into  the  higher, 
for  this  is  the  law  of  growth.  "If  man  love 
not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can 
he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen?" 

It  follows,  then,  that  the  home  should  be  a 
place  of  rest,  of  repose,  of  love.  Handsome 
rooms  are  not  needed,  in  fact,  walls  covered 
with  pictures,  and  shelves  with  bric-a-brac  are 
often  a  distinctive  drawback  to  spiritual  and 
mental  growth,  the  general  impression  being 
that  of  confusion.  Simple,  homely  comfort 
seems  to  be  the  better  influence;  a  pretty  bed- 
room to  which  friends  may  be  invited  may  keep 
the  boy  from  wandering,  while  an  open  grate 
fire  and  a  comfortable  arm  chair  often  have  the 
same  influence  upon  the  father.  Some  years 
ago  a  certain  old  theatre  in  New  York  was  es- 
pecially popular  with  business  and  professional 
men.  Neither  the  plays  nor  the  settings  were 
better  than  those  of  other  houses,  yet  men  could 


loo  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

attend  there  when  too  tired  or  too  dull  to  go 
elsewhere.  At  length  the  house  was  remodeled 
and  then  the  charm  was  gone.  A  certain 
length  of  seat  had  afforded  a  peculiarly  com- 
fortable rest  for  the  long  thigh  bone ;  this  had 
proved  the  irresistible  attraction.  Perhaps 
builders  of  churches  would  do  well  to  heed  the 
suggestion. 

Fox  terriers  are  prone  to  seek  different 
homes;  it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  breed.  A 
friend  of  mine  remarked  that  hers  had  never 
done  so  and  probably  never  would.  "How  do 
you  manage?"  asked  one.  "It's  easy,"  she  re- 
plied, "I  try  to  make  him  very  welcome  when 
he  comes  back  from  an  outing."  The  kindly 
pat  on  the  head,  and  "Good  old  doggie"  frort) 
each  member  of  the  family  always  awaited 
him,  and  he  knew  it.  Human  animals  are 
amenable  to  the  same  influences. 

One  can  never  estimate  fully  the  effect  of 
environment.  For  example,  how  would 
"Snowbound"  have  gotten  itself  written  in  a 
modern  flat  with  all  the  appliances  of  steam 
and  electricity?  And  this  leads  me  to  repeat 
what  I  have  said  before — that  we  are  not  al- 
ways mindful  of  the  difficulties  young  people 


INFLUENCES.  loi 

sometimes  encounter  in  their  study  of  litera- 
ture. Many  a  boy  in  the  eighth  grade  to-day 
has  never  seen  a  shepherd,  or  a  genuine  old 
fire-place;  many  more  are  growing  up  who 
have  never  seen  a  lamp.  Can  mere  verbal  ref- 
erence to  these  things  recall  to  them  the  same 
picture  that  comes  to  you  and  to  me?  This  is 
a  world  of  change.  In  another  century  the 
child  may  find  similar  difficulty  in  understand- 
ing an  allusion  to  the  horse  and  buggy. 

Fun  is  essential  to  a  happy  home  or  a  good 
school.  Few  situations  exist  in  the  ordinary 
routine  of  daily  life  that  do  not  present  some 
element  of  humor,  and  the  child  should  be  en- 
couraged to  look  for  this.  Muddy  coffee  and 
tough  steak  for  breakfast  are  not  especially 
appetizing  or  agreeable,  but  it  is  not  always 
possible  to  avoid  them ;  while  a  good  hearty 
laugh  may  render  their  assimilation  easier. 
Habitual  cheerfulness  is  spontaneous  only  in 
perfect  health,  but  the  confirmed  invalid  may 
attain  unto  it,  for  it  is  contagious.  The  most 
dejected  and  wretched  of  human  beings  are 
made  less  wretched  by  the  effort  to  be  cheerful. 
It  is  often  wise  to  assume  a  gentle  courtesy 
and  good  nature  that  are  not  spontaneous.  The 


I02  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

form  stimulates  the  growth  of  the  virtue,  ex- 
cept in  hypocrites.  Every  well-meaning  effort 
to  be  cheerful  promotes  the  growth  of  cheer- 
fulness. The  virtue  grows  by  what  it  feeds 
upon. 

Christian  philosophy  differs  fundamentally 
from  that  of  Herbert  Spencer,  but  the  church 
owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude,  in  that  he  has 
helped  to  show  that  man  cannot  be  educated  in 
sections.  Nor  are  the  three  R's  deemed  suffi- 
cient for  the  most  meager  preparation  for  liv- 
ing; the  school  is  now  interested  in  the  three 
H's — head,  heart,  and  hand.  The  visible  re- 
sult is  the  present  strong  trend  toward  all 
kind  of  training  for  the  hand,  and  toward 
music,  literature,  and  good  behavior  for  the 
heart.  This  is  the  most  notable  mark  of  mod- 
ern education. 

UNION  OF  SCHOOL,  AND  HOME. 

When  once  this  co-operation  fairly  sets  in 
there  will  be  an  improvement  in  the  education 
of  children  beyond  the  realization  of  our  fond- 
est dreams.  Mothers  will  then  regard  their 
children  from  the  standpoint  of  science  as  well 
as  from  that  of  sentiment.    It  will  then  be  seen 


INFLUENCES.  103 

that  the  suffering  children  are  not  found  exclu- 
sively among  the  very  poor.  The  power  of 
self-control  now  sadly  lacking  in  the  present 
generation,  will  be  regained  when  we  begin  to 
realize  that  concentration  must  begin  in  the 
home  in  early  childhood.  It  cannot  exist  in  an 
atmosphere  of  excitement  and  unrest.  The 
child  who  has  a  superabundance  of  toys  and 
books,  who  goes  everywhere  and  is  constantly 
on  the  alert  for  some  new  pleasure,  cannot 
learn  it.  This  power  comes  slowly,  a  certain 
degree  of  repose  being  necessary  to  its  growth. 
The  present  facilities  for  rapid  transit,  the  tele- 
phone and  many  other  inventions  so  conducive 
to  our  comfort  and  convenience,  encourage  a 
diversity  of  activity  and  experience  not  favor- 
able to  repose.  We  cannot  get  away  from 
them,  but  their  influence  may  be  greatly  modi- 
fied when  parent  and  teacher  shall  study  such 
problems  together.  The  young  child  is  incapa- 
ble of  concentrating  its  attention  for  long, 
but  that  ability  increases  with  judicious  exer- 
cise. The  simple  life  and  daily  recurring  duties 
of  the  homes  of  the  first  half  of  the  last  century 
were  more  favorable  to  this  needed  repose. 


104         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Intelligent  experiment  in  the  nursery  will  do 
much  to  aid  the  primary  teacher  in  determin- 
ing the  length  and  character  of  her  various  exer- 
cises, and  will  emphasize  the  necessity  for  more 
frequent  rest  periods;  while  the  mother  who 
now  complains  that  her  eight-year-old  daughter 
"lacks  concentration"  will  know  that  this  power 
must  be  nurtured  in  the  home  before  the  child 
enters  school,  and  that  even  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions  not  much  can  be  expected. 
Few  of  us  see  the  child  as  he  really  is.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  the  boy  whom  one  mother 
regards  as  a  sort  of  athletic  girl,  while  the 
mother  of  high  ideals  and  sensitive  tempera- 
ment often  does  him  incalculable  injury  by  her 
analytic,  anxious  study  of  his  physical  and 
moral  symptoms.  The  boy  is  bathed,  washed^ 
dosed,  read  to,  dissected,  lectured  and  prayed 
with  until  he  becomes  a  canting  little  hypocrite, 
a  callous  young  sinner,  or  a  morbid,  shrinking, 
over-conscientious  creature  with  small  realiza- 
tion of  his  birthright  of  a  happy  wholesome 
childhood.  No  one  needs  Divine  guidance  more 
than  the  teacher,  but  we  ought  to  study  God's 
plan  as  set  forth  in  his  works.  We  might  im- 
nrove  our  definition  of  prayer.  Emerson  would 
help  us. 


INFLUENCES.  105 

The  school  is  apt  to  expend  its  energy  in 
teaching  abstract  knowledge.  What  the  child 
thus  acquires,  he  sees  through  a  glass  darkly. 
His  great,  perhaps  greatest,  school  need  is 
wholesome,  interesting  occupation  for  hours 
out  of  school.  A  few  flower  seeds,  some  bits  of 
wood  and  a  set  of  carving  tools,  a  chest  of  car- 
penters' tools  may  save  him  from  perdition,  if 
they  come  at  the  right  time.  We  wait  too  long 
— until  after  he  has  formed  other  tastes.  A 
child  in  the  second  or  third  grade  is  interested 
in  growing  flowers,  in  carrying  soil  in  his  cart, 
in  gathering  bits  of  paper  on  the  lawn  with  his 
broom  handle,  into  the  end  of  which  he  has 
driven  a  long  nail  for  a  spike — anything,  in 
fact,  which  will  employ  his  restless  muscles  in 
useful  ways,  and  these  interests  continue  with- 
out flagging  through  the  fourth  grade ;  but  in 
the  fifth  grade  there  is  a  change.  Pupils  here 
show  little  interest  in  these  occupations  unless 
they  have  already  learned  to  love  them,  and  in 
the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades  they  look 
with  a  sort  of  elevated  toleration  upon  those 
who  seem  to  like  this  sort  of  thing.  They  have 
acquired  other  tastes. 


io6         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

The  inability  to  employ  leisure  moments  to 
advantage  pervades  all  classes  of  society.  It 
impels  the  rich  to  all  manner  of  excesses,  while 
the  poor  take  to  the  saloon  or  the  street  corner. 
Both  classes  are  suffering  the  punishment  of 
empty-mindedness.  Some  years  ago  a  prosper- 
ous Australian  city  became  able  to  pay  its  work- 
ing men  better  wages.  Certain  business  firms 
made  it  easy  for  their  employes  to  support  their 
families  comfortably  by  working  but  little  more 
than  half  a  day.  The  released  laborer  took  to 
drink,  became  idle,  quarrelsome,  and  obnox- 
ious ;  the  women,  too,  grew  discontented.  They 
neglected  their  homes,  complained  of  their  large 
families,  and  tried  to  imitate  the  selfish  idleness 
of  the  wealthier  classes.  They  followed  the 
only  course  open  to  them.  It  is  probable  that 
this  experience  would  be  repeated  in  every  city 
in  many  individual  cases. 

Every  child  loves  to  do  something;  let  us 
make  that  something  educative.  Some  will 
collect  insects  or  gather  fossils  and  beautiful 
stones,  while  others  are  interested  in  the  habits 
of  fish  or  birds.  Noted  naturalists  have  been 
created  in  this  way,  and  a  man  whom  we  all 
know  has  become  eminent  through  a  collection 


INFLUENCES.  107 

of  weeds  which  he  commenced  in  early  boy- 
hood. No  outlay  of  money  is  needed  for  this 
sort  of  work;  in  fact,  interest  generally  de- 
clines in  the  ratio  that  expensive  outfits  are  pro- 
vided. The  chief  requirement  is  a  wise  and 
sympathetic  mother  and  teacher,  not  afraid  of 
toads  and  snakes;  one  who  says  little  but 
helps  much ;  one  who  does  not  show  displeas- 
ure at  a  little  dirt  and  can,  if  necessary,  assist 
the  boy  in  his  various  undertakings.  Agas- 
siz's  mother  helped  him  dig  the  receptacles  for 
the  fish  he  so  loved,  and  this  community  of  in- 
terest in  his  early  childhood  formed  a  tie  which 
lasted  during  life.  Who  can  say  how  much  of 
future  greatness  has  had  its  rise  in  this  whole- 
some companionship  and  direction  of  early 
childhood? 

It  is  suggested  above  that  a  simple  outfit, 
that  meets  all  requirements,  is  better  than  a 
more  elaborate  one.  A  A  boy  likes  something 
that  he  has  made  or  provided  for  himself,  some- 
thing he  is  not  afraid  of  spoiling.  A  common 
glass  fruit  jar  makes  a  fine  aquarium,  and 
much  is  gained  if  he  is  invited  to  bring  his 
treasure  to  school  as  an  adornment  for  the  win- 
dow sill.     It  is  here  that  the  home  and  the 


io8  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

school  have  much  in  common;  a  judicious 
hint  from  the  mother  may  be  followed  by  en- 
couragement of  some  particular  taste  which 
needed  only  this  influence  to  develop  and 
strengthen  it,  while  the  teacher,  in  her  turn, 
may  be  able  to  make  many  valuable  suggestions 
from  her  point  of  view.  The  child  at  school  is 
generally  a  far  different  being  from  the  child 
at  home — often  better,  sometimes  worse — but 
he  is  rarely  the  same  in  both  places.  This  dual 
existence  is  a  distressing  fact,  seldom  under- 
stood, but  it  suggests  a  fruitful  field  of  study. 
Another  advantage  of  this  co-operation  is 
the  change  of  views  and  opinions  that  is  sure 
to  result  on  both  sides.  Children  often  evince 
interests  and  tendencies  which  seem  evidences 
of  unusual  talent  to  the  eyes  of  maternal  affec- 
tion, but  when  the  child  works  daily  with 
thirty  or  forty  others  of  the  same  age,  in  the 
same  environment,  many  an  intelligent  mother 
has  been  surprised  to  find  that  the  darling  who 
appeared  so  brilliant  at  home  is  not  the  star  of 
his  class  but  is  merely  a  good  average.  Nothing 
is  so  helpful  in  correcting  false  impressions  of 
this  kind  as  comparison,  and  a  kind-hearted 
teacher   can   offer   many   helpful   suggestions. 


INFLUENCES.  109 

This  is  particularly  true  when  she  is  asked  (as 
she  often  is)  to  name  the  child's  leading  ten- 
dency or  interest,  or  to  state  what  she  thinks 
the  child  will  be  best  fitted  for  when  a  man. 
This  is  alv/ays  a  hard  question  for  the  conscien- 
tious teacher.  Only  tact  and  perfect  truthful- 
ness will  keep  her  in  the  right  path.  Few 
children  show  strongly  marked  and  continuous 
tastes  in  early  childhood.  They  generally 
evince  a  variety  of  tendencies,  a  desire  to  flit 
from  one  interest  to  another.  This  is  perfectly 
normal  as  this  is  the  period  of  budding  inter- 
ests, and  only  a  strong  and  constantly  recurring 
interest  should  be  taken  seriously. 

Then  there  is  the  period  of  puberty  when 
lassitude  makes  physical  exertion  painful.  The 
boy  may  find  in  books  the  path  of  least  resist- 
ance. His  physical  condition  is  mistaken  for 
an  awakened  love  of  study.  We  think  our  hero 
entering  upon  a  professional  career,  when,  in 
fact,  his  body  is  developing  so  fast  that  he  has 
no  energy  for  the  voluntary  muscles. 

Parents  who  have  grown  weary  with  toil 
look  up  to  professional  life  as  an  opportunity 
for  elegant  leisure,  and  they  insist  upon  thrust- 
ing their  children  into   it  without  regard  to 


no         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

their  fitness  or  choice.  This  sort  of  thing 
will  continue  until  all  classes  of  society  form 
truer  ideals.  It  is  vain  to  talk  of  the  dignity 
of  menial  toil,  so  long  as  wealth  continues  in- 
solent and  overbearing  toward  the  toiler.  No 
one  is  so  quick  to  see  the  real  estimate  placed 
upon  labor  as  the  laborer  himself.  If  he  is 
ignorant  he  accepts  the  standard  which  money 
sets  up.  If  intelligent,  he  protests  and  is  un- 
happy. His  family  strives  to  follow  the  lead 
of  wealth  in  its  expenditures,  with  the  result 
that  his  expenses  exceed  his  income,  thus  ren- 
dering life  false  to  its  very  core. 

There  is  a  wide  difference  between  drudgery 
and  intelligent  labor — labor  with  brains  behind 
it.  Many  people  whose  lives  are  spent  in  a 
nerve-wrecking  struggle  to  appear  what  they 
are  not,  would  be  glad  to  live  plainly  and  simply 
within  their  incomes  if  they  could  only  know 
that  inexpensive  raiment,  and  an  unfashionable 
domicile  did  not  consign  their  children  and 
themselves  to  social  oblivion ;  that  culture  and 
intelligence  do  not  count.  Many  a  young 
woman  would  exchange  the  comfortless  factory 
or  merchant's  counter  for  a  cosy  kitchen,  if  she 
could  feel  that  the  brain  power  put  into  scien- 


INFLUENCES.  1 1 1 

tific  house- work  was  respected  equally  with 
that  which  writes  books  or  conducts  a  busi- 
ness. 

Co-operative  study  of  parents  and  teachers 
will  emphasize  the  necessity  of  independent 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  child,  and  of  drill  to 
secure  facility. 

By  a  wrong  use  of  this  developing  method 
of  teaching,  the  inductive  method  has  been 
misapplied,  until  the  average  child  waits  to 
have  his  work  done  for  him;  I  mean  the 
work  that  he  should  do  for  himself.  The 
joy  of  conquest  is  rarely  his.  This  is  a  great 
wrong,  for  the  normally  developed  child  loves 
to  wrestle,  mentally  as  well  as  physically,  and 
one  of  the  keenest  and  most  wholesome  pleas- 
ures he  can  ever  know  is  the  satisfaction  that 
always  follows  a  conflict  in  which  he  has  come 
off  victor.  Two-thirds  of  the  fighting  in  which 
boys  indulge  is  for  the  purpose  of  deciding 
superiority  in  courage,  or  strength,  or  skill. 
Tact  can  turn  this  desire  for  conquest  into  the 
field  of  mental  effort,  and  the  boy  will  gain 
pleasure  in  fighting  the  problems  he  meets  in 
his  daily  work.  How  can  he  better  learn  to 
fight  his  own  besetting  sins  than  by  the  persist- 


112         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

ent  exercise  of  a  self-initiative  in  mastering  his 
tasks  ? 

Then,  too,  we  love  to  do  that  which  we  can 
do  zvell.  It  may  be  that  no  one  engages  in 
work  of  any  kind  merely  for  the  pleasure  of 
the  work,  but  as  skill  comes  his  joy  in  the  exe- 
cution increases.  Skill  comes  only  with  repeti- 
tion. We  find  in  ourselves  aptitudes  for  some 
particular  kinds  of  work,  but  even  these  must 
be  trained.  He  must  have  practice,  repetition ; 
and  the  experience  that  comes  from  this  will 
make  our  enjoyment  complete.  The  young  per- 
son of  to-day  is  a  comparative  stranger  to  this 
enjoyment.  He  has  a  restless  sort  of  interest 
when  he  has  any,  but  persistent  concentration 
upon  one  thing  until  it  is  well  done  is  rare.  As 
the  time  draws  near  for  him  to  leave  school  he 
ought  to  be  familiar  with  the  joy  of  conquest 
which  comes  from  independent  and  sustained 
conflict. 

The  artisan  of  to-day  has  lost  a  great  incen- 
tive and  pleasure  in  that  he  seldom  sees  his  work 
grow  under  his  hands  to  a  complete  whole. 
The  tailor  of  old  found  a  joy  in  the  completed 
coat.  That  is  unknown  to  the  workman  in  the 
factory  engaged,  day  after  day,  in  working  to 


INFLUENCES.  113 

the  finish  some  particular  part  of  the  garment 
only.  The  former  system  had  an  educational 
value,  while  the  other  is  merely  a  mechanical, 
soul-killing  grind.  No  wonder  that  the  victim 
of  these  unhappy  conditions  flies  to  the  billiard 
table,  the  saloon,  the  theatre,  as  soon  as  the 
evening  comes.  Every  cell  of  his  body  is  cry- 
ing out  for  a  change,  and  dissipation  is  the  only 
relief  which  society  has  provided  from  the  dead- 
ening monotony  of  the  day's  work.  Is  the 
fault  his  or  ours?  In  what  degree  are  we  pre- 
paring the  children  to  resist  such  a  fate?  We 
condemn  intemperance,  and  assail  high  heaven 
with  our  prayers,  while  we  ignore  the  effects  of 
food,  the  forming  of  intemperate  habits  of  feel- 
ing and  conduct,  the  evils  of  social  dissipation, 
and  when  the  mischief  is  done,  we  run  about 
seeking  to  reform  our  victims.  Surely  we,  the 
parents  and  teachers,  are  to  blame  for  the  bend- 
ing of  the  twig  that  makes  the  crooked  tree. 
The  fullest  answer  that  can  come  from  prayer 
is  the  impulse  to  supply  an  environment  for  the 
child  that  will  lead  him  toward  a  good  stand- 
ard of  life  at  every  step.  God  gives  every  bird 
its  food,  but  does  not  drop  it  into  the  bird's 
mouth.  We  sometimes  look  to  the  clouds  for 
help  when  the  aid  we  seek  is  within  us. 


114         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Another  matter  for  co-operative  study  is  that 
of  amusements.  How  much  and  how  httle  may 
the  growing  child  have?  What  amusements 
are  suited  to  each  age  ? — their  relative  vahie  ? — 
their  use  and  abuse?  Temperament,  health, 
and  social  conditions  all  have  their  bearing  on 
this  important  topic.  What  someone  calls  the 
"principle  of  innoculation"  can  be  often  ap- 
plied to  advantage.  It  is  impossible  to  vacci- 
nate the  child  with  certain  amusements  and 
pastimes  innocent  in  themselves — but  made  in- 
struments of  evil  by  some  in  later  life — at  the 
age  he  craves  them,  in  such  a  way  that,  al- 
though he  may  take  to  them  violently  for  a 
time,  he  will  recover  and  become  indifferent  to 
them  before  he  is  grown. 

Another  subject  for  co-operative  considera- 
tion is  that  of  promotions.  Complaint  is  often 
heard  that  the  teacher  "crowds  the  pupil," 
"crams  him,"  "pushes  him  on  before  he  is 
ready."  But  the  parent  is  often  to  blame  in 
this  matter.  When  the  child  has  not  done  the 
work  who  is  it  that  begs  and  implores  the 
teacher  to  give  him  a  condition,  even  when 
the  child  is  in  poor  health  and  absolutely  unfit 
for  any  great  mental  effort?    And  the  reasons 


INFLUENCES.  1 1  5 

given  for  the  request — "John  feels  so  bad!" 
"All  his  playmates  have  gone  into  a  higher 
room;"  "He  is  the  tallest  boy  in  his  class;" 
"His  father  promised  him  a  gold  watch  if  he 
went  up  at  the  end  of  the  term."  Frequent 
meetings  of  mothers  and  teachers  would  show 
up  this  matter  in  its  true  light.  The  class  spirit 
is  a  valuable  asset  in  the  school,  and  chagrin 
and  mortification  are  serious  drawbacks  which 
should  be  eliminated  from  the  child's  life  as 
much  as  possible ;  but  a  little  study  of  the  con- 
ditions and  work  will  provide  the  parent  with 
higher  and  more  humane  reasons  for  desiring 
promotion,  while  the  teacher  may  gain  a  more 
sympathetic  insight  into  the  mental  and  physi- 
cal conditions  of  the  home.  Inflexible  courses 
of  study  and  the  same  promotion  tests  for  all 
classes  of  pupils  have  many  sins  recorded 
against  them. 


ii6         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


VIII 

INFLUENCES. 

Continued. 

THE  question  of  athletics  for  girls  de- 
mands serious  consideration.  Twenty - 
five  years  of  its  study  and  practice 
have  transformed  the  once  delicate  American 
girl  into  a  Diana.  Her  mental  and  physical 
improvement  is  admitted,  but  in  view  of 
woman's  maternal  functions,  may  not  muscu- 
lar development  be  carried  too  far?  It  is  not 
best  that  all  muscles  should  be  like  iron.  Ob- 
serve the  physical  exercises  given  to  girls  in 
their  teens — the  kneeling,  bending,  posing, 
and  many  others.  To  put  a  group  of  thirty  or 
forty  girls  and  boys  through  this  every  day 
without  the  slightest  reference  to  individual 
conditions  or  sex  is  unwise.  The  spiritual  con- 
trol of  the  physical  body  resulting  in  grace  of 
movement  and  instant  response  to  the  will  is 
education ;  but  girls  have  no  call  to  be  athletes. 


INFLUENCES.  117 

Few  of  us  realize  as  we  ought  the  value  of 
short  and  frequent  rest  periods.  Every  girl 
should  be  trained  in  this  art  from  early  child- 
hood. The  ability  to  lie  prone  upon  the  back 
for  a  few  minutes,  and  to  sleep  at  will  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  would  save  many  a  school 
girl  from  collapse.  These  habits  are  not  so 
much  a  matter  of  leisure  and  opportunity  as  of 
self-control.  Napoleon  so  trained  himself  that 
he  could  fall  asleep  whenever  he  willed — even 
in  the  saddle.  Though  not  physically  robust, 
he  had  more  endurance  than  any  of  his  com- 
rades. He  knew  the  value  of  minutes.  Noth- 
ing is  more  beneficial  to  health  than  self-con- 
trol. Training  of  this  kind  often  prevents  in- 
sanity, and  a  noted  prison  official  declares 
there  would  be  fewer  murderers  if  the  children 
in  the  public  schools  acquired  the  power  to  sit 
perfectly  still  for  five  minutes  each  day.  The 
self-control  thus  gained  would  arrest  the  fatal 
blow  until  the  passion  that  prompted  it  had 
subsided.  Why  not  make  the  rest  habit  second 
nature  from  early  childhood? 

Sleep  and  fresh  air  are  wonderful  remedies 
for  tired  nerves.  Throw  open  the  window 
when  the  cliild  goes  to  bed  and  he  will  awaken 


ii8         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

refreshed,  if  he  is  properly  protected  from  a 
draft.  Perhaps  earher  generations  owed  some 
of  their  sturdiness  to  the  fact  that  their  houses 
were  more  open  to  the  weather,  and  air-tight 
windows  were  a  thing  unknown. 

Certain  kinds  of  piano  practice  requiring 
monotonous  repetition,  with  no  thought  back 
of  it,  are  excessively  wearing,  and  should  never 
be  tolerated.  In  the  last  chapter,  something 
was  said  favorable  to  drill,  but  the  drill  there 
referred  to  was  educative,  because  its  partici- 
pants are  interested  in  it  and  employ  it  as  a 
means  of  acquiring  some  desired  facility  or 
skill.  The  conditions  are  different  when  the 
child  is  allowed  to  strum  on  the  piano  wearily 
and  drearily,  intent  only  upon  filling  a  certain 
number  of  minutes.  This  pernicious  custom  is 
doing  much  to  discourage  piano  teaching,  and 
perhaps  the  time  is  near  when  parents  will  re- 
alize that  the  young  piano  pupil  should  never 
practice  without  supervision.  Better  thirty 
minutes  of  work  under  the  teacher's  eye  than 
hours  spent  in  fumbling  the  key  board  with 
eyes  furtively  watching  the  clock  and  the  mind 
wandering  off  to  the  anticipated  release  from 
drudgery. 


INFLUENCES.  119 

Not  only  are  the  educational  advantages  of 
such  a  course  apparent,  but  the  saving  in  time 
and  money  as  well  as  the  economy  of  effort 
must  also  appeal  to  us.  A  large  number  of  our 
children  have  lost  much  of  their  spontaneity 
and  healthful  enthusiasm  in  life,  and  deadening 
piano-practice  is  one  of  the  causes.  Surely 
mother  and  teacher  will  eventually  come  to- 
gether on  this  subject  and  evolve  something 
better  than  our  present  method.  There  is  a 
growing  number  of  instructors  in  music  that 
are  working  for  a  reform.  The  entire  field 
offers  abundant  opportunity  to  any  who  will 
work  patiently  and  honestly,  while  the  rewards 
are  as  great  and  as  certain  as  any  found  in 
other  paths  of  original  research. 

If  the  mothers  and  teachers  in  each  commu- 
nity would  agree  upon  one  or  two  simple  prob- 
lems within  the  experience  of  the  average 
woman,  and  study  them  together  until  some 
reasonable  solution  had  been  discovered,  the 
results  would  be  far  more  helpful  and  valuable 
than  anything  attained  thus  far.  We  seem  to 
fear  that  we  will  not  be  considered  learned  un- 
less we  busy  ourselves  with  some  abstruse  sub- 
ject, and  write  papers  upon  it,  which  are  as  lit- 


I20         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

tie  understood  by  the  listeners  as  they  are  by 
the  writers — forgetting  that  simplicity  is  the 
mark  of  wisdom.  The  educational  doctrines 
of  Plato  and  Aristotle  are  interesting  to  be 
sure,  but  why  not  study  modern  American 
methods  instead?  They  ought  to  be  more 
helpful. 

As  to  the  subject  of  foods,  in  view  of  mod- 
ern research,  scarcely  any  one  topic  is  so  uni- 
versally important.  In  some  instances  it  is  pos- 
sible to  change  the  sex  of  an  organism  through 
its  food,  as  in  the  case  of  the  bee  and  tadpole. 
Criminology  has  shown  that  moral  degeneracy 
attends  enfeebled  physical  conditions  which 
have  their  rise  in  poorly  nourished  and 
poorly  warmed  bodies.  Indeed  the  three  agen- 
cies are  food,  temperance,  and  social  influences. 
Everyone  realizes  the  importance  of  the  last, 
but  what  association  of  women  in  the  country 
have  studied  the  subject  of  foods  persistently 
and  intelligently  until  some  definite  conclusion 
has  been  reached  in  reference  to  the  relative 
values  of  certain  articles  of  diet?  They  know 
more  of  the  conquest  of  Peru.  We  flit  like 
butterflies  over  vast  fields  of  literature  and 
history  without  any  definite  aim  or  purpose  be- 


INFLUENCES.  121 

yond  a  vague  desire  for  improvement  or  show. 
What  is  the  matter  ?  Are  we  afraid  of  appear- 
ing ignorant  or  common?  How  can  the  study 
of  anything  great  or  useful  beHttle  us?  How 
can  we  help  shining  a  little  in  its  reflected  light? 

Foods  are  mentioned  only  as  an  illustration. 
There  are  many  other  topics  of  study  exceed- 
ingly important  and  quite  as  common. 

The  average  club  woman  seems  to  pass 
through  three  distinct  stages  of  evolution. 
First  comes  the  essay  stage,  in  which  the  young 
matron  writes  "lovely  papers"  whose  weak- 
ness is  their  total  failure  to  touch  life  at  any 
point.  To  be  sure,  the  blue  satin  bow  that 
adorned  the  graduation  theme  a  few  years  be- 
fore is  now  conspicuously  absent,  but  this  is 
the  only  difference  between  the  two  produc- 
tions. Marriage  and  motherhood  have  not  yet 
greatly  widened  her  horizon,  but  there  is  a 
freshness,  a  keenness  of  interest,  a  rosy  opti- 
mism that  is  certainly  very  promising.  In  the 
second  stage,  our  fledgling  is  now  full  fledged, 
disporting  herself  in  the  shadowy  vale  of  mys- 
ticism. The  religions  of  Asia  and  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  Nile  are  her  delight.  The  meta- 
physical and  esoteric  she  revels  in.     She  daz- 


122         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

zles  her  club  on  an  afternoon  with  her  own 
bewilderment. 

The  growth  of  many  a  club  woman  is  ar- 
rested at  this  stage.  My  near  neighbor,  a  sin- 
cere and  lovable  woman,  goes  every  Wednes- 
day afternoon  to  discuss  the  needs,  physical 
and  spiritual  of  the  babes  in  Booraboolaga, 
and  returns  much  uplifted  and  refreshed;  her 
own  infant  in  the  meantime  spends  hours  in 
the  care  of  a  nurse  maid  who  places  its  nursing 
bottle  on  the  stone  parapet,  while  she,  herself 
a  child,  joins  in  the  play  of  the  group  intrusted 
to  her  care.  As  I  write,  the  scorching  sun  is 
shining  full  upon  the  bottle  from  which  the 
innocent  babe  slakes  its  thirst  from  time  to 
time.  Tomorrow  we  shall  hear  of  a  ''trouble- 
some night,"  "the  child's  inherited  delicacy  of 
stomach,"  etc.  Yet  before  bedtime,  I,  myself, 
may  be  guilty  of  as  glaring  an  inconsistency 
and  lay  my  head  upon  my  pillow  with  a  similar 
sense  of  superiority  that  sustains  the  little 
mother  in  the  next  square.  And  so  we  go  on 
until,  perchance,  some  reach  the  third  stage  in 
which  sincere,  wholesome,  helpful,  sane  club 
work  is  done.  The  frivolous  and  the  immature 
dropped  by  the  wayside,  but  the  work  done  by 


INFLUENCES.  123 

those  who  remain,  is  effective  because  they 
have  learned  to  form  true  estimates  of  values 
and  live  up  to  the  rules  they  lay  dow^n  for 
others. 

This  latter  is  the  secret  of  success  in  all  pre- 
7entive  and  reformatory  work  whether  in  the 
school  or  the  home.  Nothing  so  tests  one's  sin- 
cerity as  an  honest  attempt  to  live  up  to  his 
own  theories.  It  is  easy  to  exhort  a  poor 
woman,  who  earns  her  bread  by  scrubbing,  to 
keep  the  Sabbath  holy,  and  to  make  her  home 
attractive  and  fit  for  the  abode  of  angels,  bui 
let  us  suppose  that  we  are  deprived  of  our  own 
Sunday  drive,  and  shut  up  six  days  in  the  week 
in  a  hot,  steamy  kitchen  with  a  fretful  babe. 
"I  could  not  reform  an  ant  unless  I  became 
one,"  says  Tolstoi.  He  lived  under  the  same 
conditions,  and  carried  the  same  burdens,  as  the 
peasant  he  was  trying  to  help.  Did  we  but  fol- 
low the  advice  we  give  to  others  so  freely,  the 
slums  had  long  ago  repented  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes.  The  slums  are  as  keen  as  children  in  not- 
ing the  discrepancy  between  our  theory  and  our 
practice.  They  know  that  we  do  not  believe 
what  we  say,  or  we  would  do  it  ourselves.  This 
feeling  of  unreality  is  pernicious  not  alone  in 


124  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

club  life;  it  vitiates  the  home  life,  and  is  re- 
flected in  greater  or  less  degree  by  every  mem- 
ber of  the  family  circle.  Everyone  is  influenced 
by  the  unseen,  unspoken,  but  not  unfelt,  atti- 
tude of  those  with  whom  he  lives,  and  this  is 
especially  true  of  the  very  young.  The  dis- 
honest parent  or  teacher  will  unconsciously 
lead  his  children  in  the  direction  of  dishonesty, 
even  though  he  tries  to  appear  upright  before 
them.  Perhaps  this  is  what  is  meant  by  "visit- 
ing the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children. "^ 

Few  realize  the  immense  importance  of  their 
mental  attitude  upon  a  subject  in  its  influence  up- 
on others,  especially  upon  those  who  are  younger 
or  dependent  in  any  way  upon  them.  It  is  not 
easy  to  be  wholly  honest.  Indeed  relative  hon- 
esty is  all  that  weak  human  nature  has  been 
able  to  attain  thus  far,  but  we  shall  have  pro- 
gressed far,  both  in  intelligence  and  virtue, 
when  we  are  content  to  appear  as  we  really  are, 
instead  of  straining  every  nerve  to  seem  what 
we  are  not.  Club  work  has  a  great  opportunity 
right  here. 

"Why  all  this  fuss  about  children,"  re- 
marked an  old  woman  at  a  mothers'  meeting  a 
short  time  ago;    "In  my  days  we  were  taught 


INFLUENCES.  125 

to  keep  the  commandments  and  were  spanked 
when  we  did  wrong."  "Yes,"  said  another, 
"But  what  do  you  mean  by  keeping  the  com- 
mandments?" This  seems  to  be  the  kernel  of 
the  whole  subject.  The  commandments  are 
interpreted  by  each  generation  anew,  and  by 
each  individual  according  to  his  ability  to  keep 
abreast  of,  or  rise  above  the  generally  accepted 
views  of  the  time.  The  simple  savage  keeps 
the  decalogue  when  he  refrains  from  the 
grosser  crimes  of  murder,  robbery,  and  the 
like.  The  more  subtle  violations  of  the  law, 
such  as  slander,  the  trickeries  of  the  commer- 
cial world,  and  the  unreality  of  domestic  life 
are  beyond  his  comprehension.  To  him,  sin 
is  the  commission  of  certain  acts,  while  with  us 
it  is  the  intentional  failure  to  choose  the  highest 
good.  To  him,  religion  is  the  acceptance  of  a 
certain  creed,  to  us  it  is  a  condition  of  heart. 
One  evidence  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Christ- 
ian religion  is  that  no  one  can  live  up  to  it. 
All  that  human  nature  can  do  is  to  approximate 
it.  When  man  reaches  his  ideal  it  is  no 
longer  his  ideal.  When  we  are  able  to  under- 
stand all  truth  and  to  bring  science  and  reve- 
lation into  perfect  accord,  then  we  shall  be  as 


126         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

gods,  and  growth  will  cease.  As  the  invention 
of  the  tool  marked  the  arrest  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  body,  so  would  the  possession  of  all 
knowledge  bring  about  the  arrest  of  the  growth 
of  the  mind.  The  power  to  think,  is  the  very 
breath  of  man's  nostrils,  and  marks  the  differ- 
ence between  a  joyless,  automatic,  deadening 
adherence  to  rules,  and  a  warm,  glad  growth, 
pulsating  with  life  and  happiness.  Each  year 
finds  us  a  little  nearer  death,  or  a  little  more 
alive. 

This  is,  in  part,  the  reason  why  some  mothers 
and  teachers  wear  out  so  much  more  quickly 
than  others.  The  letter  kills  but  he  spirit 
makes  alive.  No  one  knew  this  better  than  the 
great  Froebel,  and  no  one  has  labored  more 
earnestly  and  intelligently  than  he  to  restore 
to  the  child  the  conditions  for  perpetual  growth. 
His  principles  are  applicable  to  every  age  or 
form  of  government,  but  their  application  must 
differ  according  to  the  grade  of  civilization. 
His  system  originated  under  a  despotic  form  of 
government,  and  was  intended  to  counteract, 
in  a  degree,  the  evils  of  a  military  regime, 
which  regarded  the  individual  merely  as  a  unit 
to  be  trained  for  state  purposes.     Under  these 


INFLUENCES.  127 


conditions  it  is  quite  in  order  to  pursue  certain 
methods,  which,  in  our  own  country  may  work 
harm  when  used  by  the  unskillful. 

Mothers  should  beware  lest  the  teacher  as- 
sume her  prerogatives.  The  public  school  oc- 
cupies a  peculiar  position.  Emigration  brings 
to  its  doors  many  totally  unacquainted  with 
the  language  and  customs  of  their  adopted 
country.  Add  to  these  the  poor,  whose  parents 
work  early  and  late,  and  it  can  be  readily  seen 
that  the  public  school  is  the  only  institution  by 
which  certain  evils  can  be  remedied.  Under 
these  conditions  it  has  easily,  almost  impercep- 
tibly, advanced  far  beyond  its  original  function, 
while  the  home  has  gradually  retreated.  Now 
the  disadvantage  of  a  wrong  relation  lies  in 
the  fact  that  it  prevents  the  establishment  of  a 
right  one.  Foster  parenthood  is  not  strikingly 
prominent  in  biology;  its  adoption  by  man  is 
comparatively  recent,  and,  like  other  new 
things,  apt  to  be  put  to  uses  for  which  it  is  not 
intended,  to  the  serious  injury  of  all  concerned. 

One  striking  defect  in  our  attempts  at  educa- 
tion is  the  failure  to  provide  interests  and  oc- 
cupations for  old  age.  So  much  tliought  is 
spent  upon  the  beginning  of  life,  so  little  upon 


128         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

the  end.  Infancy  is,  of  course,  the  time  for 
building  the  foundation ;  childhood  and  youth 
are  our  chief  solicitude  and  must  always  be; 
middle  age  receives  some  attention ;  but  the 
declining  years  are  often  unlovely  and  as 
naked  as  a  leafless  tree. 

The  early  part  of  life  is  spent  in  preparation 
and  pleasure ;  then  come  family  cares,  business 
anxieties,  the  struggle  for  a  competence;  and 
when,  at  last,  declining  strength  indicates  that 
the  period  of  active  warfare  is  over,  the  worker 
sinks  out  of  public  view,  thankful  indeed  if  his 
labors  have  provided  a  stage  for  the  closing 
scene  in  his  little  drama. 

Science  is  seeking  to  discover  how  to  pro- 
long life,  but  what  benefit  is  the  mere  lengthen- 
ing of  years  if  the  time  thus  added  is  empty 
and  uninteresting.  Old  age  should  be  a  period 
of  usefulness  and  rational  enjoyment,  and  both 
parent  and  teacher  should  work  definitely  to- 
ward this  end.  No  educational  system  is  ade- 
quate that  does  not  build  for  old  age.  Having 
health  it  does  not  require  great  material  wealth. 
The  appetite  diminishes  as  physical  activity  de- 
clines; warmth,  cleanliness,  and  a  small 
amount  of  food  make  up  the  sum  of  its  daily 


INFLUENCES.  129 

necessities ;  but  what  it  chiefly  craves  is  recog- 
nition ;  its  secret  grief  Hes  in  its  consciousness 
of  waning  power,  in  the  knowledge  of  a  lost 
usefulness.  Ths  should  never  be,  and  need  not 
be.  "Old  men  for  counsel,  young  men  for 
strength"  is  the  vital  and  active  principle  of 
the  best  civilization.  Growing  knowledge 
brings  better  modes  of  living  which  tend  to- 
ward a  steadily  increasing  length  of  life. 

This  calls  for  a  re-adjustment  of  educational 
methods  to  meet  the  demand  of  this  longer  pe- 
riod of  repose.  Man's  education  should  lay 
the  foundation  for  employment  in  old  age.  We 
remain  young  only  so  long  as  the  mind  is  ac- 
tive. Age  is  not  determined  by  years;  many 
die  of  old  age  in  their  youth.  Some  are  never 
alive,  while  others  remind  one  of  a  kernel 
which  is  full  of  germinal  activity.  The  serious 
evil  in  luxurious  living  is  the  distaste  it  gives 
for  persistent  effort  and  the  constantly  grow- 
ing desire  for  something  new.  Both  are  fatal 
to  happiness  at  any  time  of  life.  The  properly 
educated  mind  never  loses  its  delight  in  a  beau- 
tiful sunset,  in  a  clear  sky,  or  in  the  tint  of  a 
flower,  but  the  al)ility  to  feel  and  enjoy  the 
companionship  with  nature  must  be  cultivated 


I30         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

as  well  as  the  art  of  money  getting  or  money 
spending.  Books  are  the  chief  resource  for  the 
energies  of  old  age,  and  they  are  always  with 
us.  Teach  the  child  to  love  good  reading,  and 
he  will  have  the  great  minds  of  the  world  for 
his  friends  when  he  is  old  and  they  will  never 
fail  him.  Neither  financial  adversity  nor  a 
body  shorn  of  its  strength  can  separate  them 
from  him. 

No  one  is  ever  older  than  he  feels.  Hospi- 
tality to  new  ideas  is  the  fountain  of  perpetual 
youth.  Every  child  should  learn  how  to  use 
the  public  library  and  the  museum  before  he 
completes  the  eighth  grade.  A  stiff  formal 
visit  under  supervision  once  or  twice  a  year  is 
not  enough.  He  should  know  the  officials  as 
tried  and  trusted  friends.  This  relationship 
should  grow  with  his  years.  Thank  God  there 
are  many  men  and  women  in  the  world  today 
who  are  doing  untold  good  by  winning  the 
confidence  of  their  youthful  friends  and  guid- 
ing their  tastes  in  the  right  direction. 

The  boy  or  girl  who  learns  to  use  these  two 
institutions  properly  is  educated  for  all  time. 
When  once  the  child  has  acquired  the  habit  of 
dawdling,  gossiping,  or  lounging  on  the  street 


INFLUENCES.  131 

corner,  it  is  exceedingly  hard  to  create  interest 
in  better  things.  There  is  a  deadening  influ- 
ence in  these  and  kindred  indulgences  that  is 
not  easily  explained.  They  affect  all  classes 
of  society,  and  when  once  they  become  a  part 
of  the  child's  life,  his  sensibilities  seem  to  be 
seared  as  with  a  hot  iron. 

Music  is  a  never  failing  source  of  enjoy- 
ment. Every  one  should  learn  to  play  some  in- 
strument. It  may  not  always  be  possible  nor 
profitable  to  continue  this  accomplishment 
through  life,  but  the  study  of  a  musical  instru- 
ment, even  if  one  acquires  but  little  skill  in  us- 
ing it,  will  lead  to  a  musical  knowledge  and  a 
discriminating  taste  that  enlarges  one's  hori- 
zon and  adds  much  to  the  happiness  of  declin- 
ing years.  This  pleasure  is  not  dependent  on 
the  exhaustive  study  of  elaborate  compositions. 
Very  many  intelligent  people  do  not  respond  to 
'•Jassical  music,  but  the  appreciation  grows  if 
we  continue  in  a  receptive  attitude.  The  sim- 
ple old-fashioned  melodies,  endeared  to  us  by 
association  as  well  as  by  their  intrinsic 
beauty,  ought  never  be  left  out  of  the  home. 
Every  boy  and  girl  should  learn  to  play  and 
sing  them.        Good  music  has  kept  many   a 


132         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

hearthstone  sweet  and  pure  and  the  old  tunes 
have  followed  the  wanderer  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth,  awakening  memories  of 
home. 

The  picture  of  an  old  father  or  mother  spend- 
ing a  twilight  existence  beside  a  barely  tolerant 
fireside  is  a  disgrace  to  humanity,  a  blot  upon 
civilization ;  and  the  home  which  tolerates  such 
an  exposition  of  hypocrisy  and  selfishness  well 
deserves  all  the  discontent  and  unrest  from 
which  it  suffers.  It  does  suffer,  for  every  act 
brings  its  inevitable  consequence,  whether  of 
joy  or  pain,  and  the  hearth  that  is  guilty  of  so 
flagrant  an  act  of  cruelty  is  a  stranger  to  peace 
and  contentment.  Teach  the  child  to  reverence 
the  aged  if  you  would  make  his  own  life  happy. 

Above  all,  lead  him  to  feel  the  joy  of  loving 
service.  An  act  enobles  or  dwarfs  according 
to  the  motive  behind  it.  The  "servant  girl" 
problem  would  be  solved  if  this  principle  per- 
vaded the  home.  One  child  washes  dishes  with 
a  feeling  of  discontent  and  repugnance.  The 
work  to  her  is  miserable  drudgery.  Another 
performs  the  service  with  a  glad,  joyful  heart ; 
she  is  helping  to  make  the  loved  ones  comfort- 
able.   Which,  think  you,  will  be  the  better  able 


INFLUENCES.  i33 

to  train  and  appreciate  servants  when  she  has 
attained  to  womanhood?  Each  is  performing 
the  same  service  but  one  is  becoming  hard  and 
sordid,  while  the  other  is  growing  in  beauty 
of  soul,  in  a  joy  of  living  which  the  other  will 
never  know  even  though  the  wealth  of  the  In- 
dies were  poured  into  her  lap.  Which  will  you 
have?  There  is  no  neutral  ground.  We  must 
choose  one  or  the  other.  The  same  question 
comes  to  each  one,  though  in  a  different  form ; 
rich  and  poor  alike  must  meet  and  answer  it — 
shall  it  be  the  service  prompted  by  love,  or  the 
service  that  is  mere  drudgery?  Slave  or  free, 
which  are  we?  Heaven  is  within  us  if  we  will 
have  it  so. 

The  old  German  tale  of  the  little  girl  whose 
loaf  of  bread  was  sour  because  she  wore  a  sour 
look  while  kneading  it  is  as  true  as  history.  Let 
the  little  ones  learn  it.  The  child  who  com- 
plains of  being  ill  after  indulging  in  a  fit  of 
anger  is  probably  telling  the  truth.  He  is  suf- 
fering from  poison.  The  fluids  coursing 
through  his  body  are  changed,  and  the  repair 
of  the  tissues  is  arrested,  in  a  measure.  If  joy 
and  love  bring  health,  why  should  not  anger 
and  hate  bring  sickness? 


134         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Suggestion  is  a  wonderful  power  but  little 
understood,  and  like  every  other  influence  it  is 
capable  of  producing  good  or  evil  results.  As 
some  years  in  the  child's  life  are  considered 
more  critical  than  others  with  reference  to 
physical  and  spiritual  well-being,  so  too,  some 
months  of  each  year  may  be  more  critical  than 
others  with  reference  to  the  formation  of 
tastes  and  habits. 

The  parent  is  apt  to  say  that  his  child's  bad 
habits  have  been  acquired  in  school.  Such  a 
parent  would  be  surprised  if  he  discovered  how 
accurately,  yet  unconsciously,  the  child  portrays 
his  home  life  in  the  school.  The  average 
teacher  cannot  fail  to  form  a  tolerably  correct 
picture  of  each  pupil's  environment  out  of 
school  by  his  conduct  within  it. 

The  public  school  is  the  most  truly  demo- 
cratic institution  in  the  country;  without  it,  a 
caste  system  would  prevail  as  well  defined  as  in 
any  old  time  monarchy.  Within  the  school- 
room are  found  representatives  of  all  classes 
of  society  who  there  learn  to  estimate  one  an- 
other at  their  true  worth  regardless  of  wealth 
or  social  position. 


INFLUENCES.  i35 

A  friend  who  has  just  returned  from  a  visit 
to  her  native  city  asks,  "What  makes  the  work 
so  bad  in  the  schools?"  Primarily  it  is  be- 
cause school  officers  elected  by  popular  vote 
seek  to  meet  the  wishes  of  their  constituents, 
except  when  they  have  some  personal  interest 
of  their  own  to  advance.  If  the  people's 
ideals  are  low,  their  representatives  have 
low  ideals,  and  the  work  of  the  board  is 
poorly  done.  The  teaching  force  is  under  the 
control  of  officers  who  have  their  finger  on  the 
pulse  of  public  opinion.  If  that  is  indifferent, 
the  schools  are  apt  to  be  farmed  out  for  the 
advancement  of  private  interests.  As  are  the 
people,  so  are  the  schools. 

The  present  intensely  commercial  spirit  that 
pervades  all  departments  of  educational  work 
is  the  chief  obstacle  to  progress.  At  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War  conditions  gave  opportunities 
for  the  acquirement  of  wealth  hitherto  un- 
known. Many  who  were  poor  suddenly  be- 
came rich,  while  the  wealthy  multiplied  their 
possessions  by  thousands.  The  present  fren- 
zied pursuit  of  wealth  is  the  result.  The  at- 
mosphere has  become  saturated  with  this 
desire,  and  every  school  inspector,  lawyer,  or 


136  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

politician  who  mounts  the  platform  preaches 
the  doctrine  of  "getting  on."  Commercial 
prosperity  is  the  fetish  of  the  nation,  and  greed 
and  corruption  are  rampant  everywhere.  For- 
merly those  who  had  done  most  for  their  fellow 
men  were  the  standards  set  up  for  the  young. 
But  these  ideals  have  vanished  like  hoar  frost 
on  a  May  morning.  Men  are  now  looked  upon 
and  admired  as  heroes,  not  for  the  service  they 
have  done,  but  for  the  great  wealth  they  have 
acquired,  and  the  boys  who  listened  to  their 
eloquence  clothed  in  faulty  syntax  conclude 
that  correct  speech  and  decent  consideration 
for  others  are  not  necessary  to  success. 

We  are  nearing  the  dawn  of  a  better  day,  be- 
cause the  homes  and  the  school  are  uniting  in 
planting  the  conviction  in  the  hearts  of  the 
rising  generation  that  it  is  "Righteousness  that 
exalteth  a  nation."  The  generation  now  at  the 
helm  are  irrevocably  committed  to  the  ideals  so 
indelibly  impressed  upon  them  in  their  youth, 
that  they  cannot  change  materially,  and  the 
hope  of  the  country  is  in  the  children  who  are 
to  follow  us.  So  deep  seated  is  this  convic- 
tion in  the  minds  of  little  children  that  wealth 
is  the  chief  purpose  of  life,  that  they  write  in 


INFLUENCES.  m 

their  exercise  books :  "My  reason  for  attending 
school  is,  I  must  get  on  in  my  lessons,  for  I 
want  to  get  money." 


138         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


IX. 

CONCLUSION. 

'TT^HE  trend  of  thought  has  altered  much  dur- 
-*•  ing  the  past  fifty  or  sixty  years,  and  no- 
where is  this  more  apparent  than  in  the 
treatment  of  children.  The  term  "New  Edu- 
cation" is  not  altogether  a  misnomer,  though 
it  is  not  really  an  attempt  to  introduce  something 
new.  It  is  rather  an  endeavor  to  discover  what 
has  been  in  man  for  centuries,  and  is  funda- 
mental and  lasting.  Influences  which  have 
tended  to  stimulate  this  study  are  classified  as 
follows : 

First — The  scientific  discoveries  of  Darwin 
and  others. 

Second — The  application  of  these  discover- 
ies by  Herbert  Spencer  and  his  colleagues. 

Third — The  so-called  Higher  Criticism  of 
the  Bible  and  Religion. 

Fourth — The  many  inventions  which,  by 
rapid  transit  and  facilitating  various  industries, 
have  rapidly  changed  our  national  life. 


CONCLUSION.  139 

The  first  and  second  classes  of  influences  have 
been  already  considered  in  this  book.  Of  the 
third  class  it  is  only  needful  to  say  that  the 
accepted  modern  definition  of  the  word  ever- 
lasting as  not  necessarily  meaning  endless  or 
eternal,  in  the  sense  popularly  understood,  has 
modified  our  theories  of  the  world  to  come. 
The  good  and  evil  effects  of  the  comparatively 
sudden  change  in  what  have  heretofore  been 
considered  the  fundamental  propositions  of  the 
Christian  religion,  have  been  many  and  import- 
ant. A  large  and  more  hopeful  view  of  the 
future  has  been  accompanied  by  a  growing  dis- 
regard of  present  duty.  The  two  conflicting 
influences  are  resulting  in  a  confusion  of  mind 
which  is  dangerous  to  the  rising  generation,  and 
is  changing  the  character  of  the  home  as  well 
as  the  sense  of  moral  obligation  among  the 
people  in  general.  This  seems  to  be  the  imme- 
diate results  of  every  shifting  of  ground  from 
one  fundamental  view  to  another  in  the  growth 
of  public  opinion.  But  there  are  other  reasons 
for  the  present  prevailing  disregard  of  justice 
and  of  duty. 

Prior  to  1848  we  were  a  small  people  living 
on  the  Atlantic  coast ;    little  was  known  of  the 


I40         THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

country  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  vast 
resources  of  the  area  beyond  were  as  yet  not 
even  dreamed  of.  The  prevalence  of  hand  la- 
bor, and  the  difficulties  of  travel  tended  to  keep 
the  people  near  together  in  little  communities 
where  all,  coming  under  the  same  influences 
and  possessing  the  same  interests,  necessarily 
shared  in  the  same  views  and  opinions.  At  this 
time  the  school  and  the  home  were  closely  con- 
nected. The  teacher  knew  the  members  of  each 
family  in  the  district,  and  respect  for  law  and 
authority  was  felt  even  when  obedience  did  not 
follow. 

But  there  came  a  change.  The  tide  of  emi- 
gration set  in,  bringing  people  to  our  shores 
from  every  nation.  Facilities  for  travel  grew 
apace;  the  use  of  machinery  in  place  of  hand 
labor  transformed  society  in  every  center.  Then 
same  the  great  influx  of  domestic  inventions; 
later  the  telephone,  the  gas  stove,  and  the  vari- 
ous applications  of  electricity,  after  these  the 
electric  car,  the  bicycle,  and  the  automobile. 
The  general  result  has  been  the  bringing  to- 
gether in  constantly  changing  combinations, 
people  of  every  creed  and  degree  of  intelligence 
and    morality.      The    home,    the    school,    the 


CONCLUSION.  141 

church,  the  neighborhood,  and  the  state  felt 
the  influence.  The  home,  from  its  secluded 
character,  was  the  last  to  show  the  effects  of 
this  change,  and  it  may  be  the  last  to  re-adjust 
itself  to  the  new  conditions. 

The  multiplication  of  amusements  and  the 
diminution  of  household  requirements  have 
produced  restlessness  in  the  home  life  fatal  to 
that  repose  so  necessary  to  the  best  home 
training. 

The  school-child  of  today  is  more  intelligent 
and  less  reliable  than  the  child  of  earlier  gener- 
ations. How  can  we  bring  back  this  sterling  trait 
without  losing  what  is  gained  by  better  school 
instruction?  If  the  country  is  to  hold  together, 
if  the  five  institutions  of  our  civilization  are  to 
survive  and  improve,  childhood  must  be  taught 
a  higher  respect  for  law  and  law-givers.  The 
minor  influences  tending  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion must  be  checked,  no  matter  how  unim- 
portant they  may  seem.  The  important  things 
are  the  small  things.  The  youth  who  speaks  of 
the  chief  executive  as  "Teddy,"  and  uses  a 
pocket  handkerchief  bordered  with  small 
American  flags,  has  received  his  first  lesson  in 
disregard  of  law  and  disrespect  of  country. 


142  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

The  country  is  greatly  agitated  just  now  on 
the  subject  of  divorce.  The  seat  of  the  evil 
cannot  be  reached  by  legislation.  The  prepa- 
ration for  marriage  should  begin  in  the  cradle. 
The  child  who  is  indulged  from  babyhood,  who 
knows  no  will  but  its  own,  who  cares  for  no 
one  but  itself,  is  not  apt  to  make  in  after  years 
an  ideal  husband  or  wife.  Strange  that  women 
so  often  excuse  in  their  sons  those  traits  of 
character  that,  in  their  husbands,  have  caused 
them  suffering. 

One  great  evil  that  confronts  the  home  today 
is  the  withdrawal  of  the  father  from  family 
life.  The  causes  are  many.  Among  the  chief, 
is  the  rise  of  commercial  spirit  and  the  increas- 
ing competition  in  all  branches  of  industry. 
Many  a  father  is  compelled  to  strain  every 
nerve  to  keep  abreast  of  his  competitors,  and 
when  night  comes  he  is  fit  for  nothing  but  the 
easy  chair,  or  some  light  entertainment  that 
will  make  no  demand  upon  brain  or  body.  This 
is  the  chief  reason  why  our  theaters  are  filled 
with  light  plays  that  appeal  only  to  the  eye; 
the  reason  why  the  son  steals  out  of  the  door 
to  go  where  he  can  "enjoy  himself;"  the  rea- 
son why  the  wife  fails  to  talk  over  with  her 


CONCLUSION.  143 

husband  the  growing  fauhs  in  their  boy,  and 
seek  for  the  counsel  which  only  a  father  can 
give.  Meanwhile  the  mad  pace  goes  on;  how 
much  or  how  little  each  parent  is  to  blame  for 
the  iliad  of  woes  experienced  and  threatened, 
the  parent  only  knows. 

But  one  thing  is  certain ;  few  men  are  able 
to  give  their  children  both  moral  stamina  and 
large  wealth.  To  raise  truly  intelligent  chil- 
dren requires  a  blending  of  both  feminine  and 
masculine  ideals.  There  must  be  close  daily 
personal  contact  with  both  parents.  Schools 
and  masters  however  clever  can  not  give  the 
effective  touch — it  must  be  warm,  close,  intelli- 
gent family  life.  The  man  who  makes  a  for- 
tune rarely  has  energy  to  enjoy  it  afterward. 
The  effort  has  been  too  great,  and  he  generally 
regrets  when  too  late  that  he  spent  so  much  to 
gain  so  little. 

It  is  all  merely  a  question  of  ideals  and  in 
this,  as  in  everything  else,  each  one  must  make 
his  choice.  One  gets  what  he  works  for,  for 
the  most  part,  especially  in  the  life  that  is 
worth  living. 

Two  men  were  digging  under  my  window 
a    few    months    ago,    when    one    dropped    his 


144  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

spade.  "I've  found  another  nickel,"  he  cried. 
"Pshaw,"  said  the  other,  "I  never  find  any- 
thing but  buttons."  "You  never  look  for  any- 
thing but  buttons,"  retorted  his  companion; 
"You  find  buttons  because  you  look  for  'em;" 
and  so  it  is.  We  get  what  we  seek  in  this  world 
and  must  not  grumble  if  it  proves  to  be  but- 
tons. The  saddest  feature  is  that  the  innocent, 
helpless  children  must  suffer  for  our  mistakes. 
But  all  is  not  lost  if  the  home  holds  together. 
We  must  return  to  a  simpler  life.  We  must 
take  off  the  leaden  cloak  of  seeming  to  be  what 
we  are  not.  We  must  eat,  dress,  and  entertain 
according  to  our  income,  without  considering 
what  our  neighbors  think.  We  can  never  be 
truly  ourselves  while  dominated  by  others' 
ideals.  To  be  other  than  one's  self  is  to  be 
nothing.  The  world  today  is  full  of  copies, 
often  of  bad  originals.  Every  one  is  capable  of 
being  an  original  and  there  is  some  one  thing 
he  can  do  better  than  anyone  else.  Something 
for  which  the  world  is  waiting.  Teach  the 
child  in  home  and  in  school  to  find  and  do  this 
one  thing,  and  he  is  no  longer  a  slave,  but  free. 
A  foolish  imitation  of  others  has  no  tempta- 
tions for  him  because  his  source  of  joy  is  in 


CONCLUSION.  145 

himself.  It  is  only  the  empty  mind  that  seeks 
to  fill  itself  with  cheap  imitations.  And  family 
life  is  the  place  to  bring  out  the  real  thing;  to 
encourage,  to  burnish,  to  love  the  best  of  which 
each  member  is  capable. 

But  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  of  our 
shortcomings,  we  are  approaching  the  dawn  of 
a  day  more  glorious  than  any  that  have  gone 
before.  Greater  opportunities-  bring  greater 
success  to  him  who  can  improve  them.  The 
child  today  is  being  cared  for  more  intelli- 
gently than  ever  before.  The  light  of  recent 
discovery  has  come  upon  us  so  suddenly  that 
our  eyes  are  blinded  for  the  moment;  but  as 
time  passes  our  mental  vision  will  grow  clearer, 
the  judgment  truer.  Much  that  is  now  retained 
will  be  cast  aside  as  useless,  while  some  things 
temporarily  discarded  will  be  brought  back  in 
a  larger  and  better  way.  The  home  will  regain 
its  former  influence  and  power,  and  the  glory 
of  coming  generations  will  center  around  that 
most  sacred  of  all  human  institutions.  The 
American  Hearthstone. 

THE  END. 


146  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


List  of  Valuable  Books  of  Reference  to   be 
found  in  most  small  Public  Libraries. 


Chapter  I. 

Babies  and  Monkeys. — Popular  Science  Monthly,  Jan 
uary,  1895,  Vol.  46,  p.  371. 

The  Tree  Dwellers. — The  Age  of  Fear.— Katherine 
E.  Dopp. — Rand,  McNally  &  Company,  Chicago. 

The  Primitive  Family. — Thwing. 

The  Evolution  of  The  Family. — Popular  Science 
Monthly,  Vol.  40,  p.  257. 

The  Story  of  Ab.— Stanley  Waterloo. 

The  Story  of  Primitive  Man. — Cladd. — Appleton  & 
Company. 

Early  Man  in  Britain. — Dawkins. — McMillan  Co. 

How  to  Make  Baskets. — Mary  White. 

Indian  Basketry. — George  W.  Jones. 

Drummond's  Ascent  of  Man. 

Some  Fundamental  Principles  of  Sunday  School  and 
Bible  Teaching. — Pedagogical  Seminary,  Decem- 
ber,  1901. 

Chapter  II. 

The  Motor  Ability  of  Children.— Annual  Report, 
Commissioner  of  Education,  1898,  Vol.  2,  p.  1291. 


BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE.  147 

Influence  of  Exercise   on    Growth. — Journal    Exper. 
Med.,  1896,  Vol.  1,  p.  516. 

Relation  Between  Growth  and  Disease. — Am.  Medi- 
cal Association,  1891. 

Influences  of  Palatal  Deformities  in  Idiots. — Journal 
of  Medical  Sci&nce,  Jan.  1897,  Vol.  43,  p.  72. 

A  Study  in  Youthful  Degeneracy.— PecZa^ogicaZ  Semi- 
nary, p.  221,  Dec.  1906. 

Chapter  III. 

Fatig"ue    in    School    Children. — Educational  Meview 
Jan.  1898,  p.  34. 

Study  of  Imitation. — Annual  Report,  Commissioner 
of  Education,  Vol.  1,  1896-97,  Chapter  13. 

Physical  Training-.— Same,  1898,  Vol.  1,  p.  487. 

Chapter  IV. 

Child  Study  and  Religious  Education. — Child  Study 
Monthly,  Oct.  1896,  Vol.  2,  p.  289. 

The  Early  Cave  Men.— The  Age  of  Combat.— Kather- 
ine  E.  Dopp. 

The  Later  Cave   Men. — The   Age  of  the   Chase. — 
Katherine  E.  Dopp. 

The    Tent  Dwellers.— The    Early    Fishing    Man.— 
Katherine  E.  Dopp. 

Chapter  V. 

The  Place  of  Industries  in  Elementary  Education 
— Katherine  E.  Dopp. 


i48  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

Some  Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Social  Occupations. 

— Katherine  E.  Dopp. 
The  Elementary  School  Teacher,  March  and  April,  1903. 

Origin  of  Inventions. — Mason. 

Punishments  as  Seen  by  Children. — Pedagogical  Semi- 
nary, Vol.  3,  p.  235. 

Educative  Value  of  Children's  Questioning. — Popular 
Science  Monthly,  Vol.  44,  p.  799. 

Chapter  VI. 

Industrial  Education. — Annual  Report,  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  1896,  Vol.  1,  p.  -443. 

The  Sorrows  of  Childhood. — Atlantic  Monthly,   Vol.  9. 

The  Boyhood  of  Great  Men. — Annual  Report,  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  1898,  Vol.  2,  p.  1294. 

Increase  in  Volume  of  Heart  at  Puberty. — Annual 
Report,  Commissioner  of  Education,  Vol.  1,  1898 
p.  995. 

Growth  of  First  Born  Children,— Same,  p.  1100. 

Children  Larger  Born  in  Summer. — Same,  p.  994. 

Only  Children.— Same,  1898,  Vol.  2,  p.  1349. 

Miscellaneous. 
A  Mornings  Observation   of  a   Baby. — Fletcher  B. 

Dresslar. 
The  First  Modern  Schoolmaster. — Wm.  H.  Burnham. 
Children's  Ideals.— Adelaide  E.  Wyckoff. 
All  may  be  found  in  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.   8, 

No.  4,  Dec.  1901. 

School  Breakdown.— JfecZica?  Neics,  1900,  Vol.  77, 
p.  208.  jy^ 


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